The UNITAR Iraq Entrepreneurship and Leadership Youth Training Programme is a fellowship initiative that provides youth with skills in entrepreneurship and leadership to develop or strengthen local businesses that contribute to social and economic stability in their country. In this Impact Story, we review the extent to which participants have applied or transferred knowledge and skills from the programme and the challenges encountered by them and spotlight the experiences from three participants.

For the world to build back from the socioeconomic havoc wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, women’s leadership is more necessary than ever before. This International Women’s Day, UNITAR celebrates alumna who are leading to improve their lives and societies in fragile and developing states.

“My world drastically expanded when I gathered the courage to take this step. It was definitely worth it,” says second-year Takeda High School student Sakura OMURA, who became a 2020 UNITAR Youth Ambassador. UNITAR Hiroshima Office/Division for Prosperity, in collaboration with the UNITAR Association, annually runs the UNITAR Youth Ambassador programme for high school students in Hiroshima. UNITAR seeks to nurture these young people, who are expected to play an important role in the international community, by providing opportunities for exposure to the global community. Sakura was one of the 24 youth selected for the 2020 programme, which was held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hussein Naeem Hasan Naser: Hussein talks about how his participation in UNITAR's 2019 Iraq training programme helped him start his social business and how he was able to enhance his skills and mindset.

Using the knowledge gained from the UNITAR Disaster Risk Reduction Training she took part in, Lu'isa Uai Taunga from Tonga worked on incorporating best practices from around the globe and adapting them to her local context.

When Lu’isa Uai Taunga, an officer with the National Emergency Management Office in the Kingdom of Tonga, participated in the UNITAR Disaster Risk Reduction Training which wrapped up in November 2017, she left with renewed energy and ideas for new initiatives to prepare her community in the island group of Ha’apai in the event of a disaster.

“We are vulnerable to tropical cyclones, tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, drought and flash floods and it’s an all year cycle,” said Lu’isa Uai Taunga, a citizen of the Kingdom of Tonga, who participated in the UNITAR Disaster Risk Reduction Training which concluded in November 2017.

UNITAR courses don’t just provide information — they help individuals develop ideas and solutions to the problems they face. They help individuals cultivate sustainable solutions. Mamunur Rahman is one of these individuals.

Ms. Christina Pita Lukudu is a legal counsel working for the Directorate of Public Prosecution in the Ministry of Justice of South Sudan, the world’s newest nation. She was among a group of Fellows who participated in the first cycle of the UNITAR South Sudan Fellowship Programme, launched in September 2015.  

Far from bragging about it, 25 years old Hasan might be too modest to acknowledge he's part of Iraq's best chances for a brighter future. Born in Baghdad one year after the end of the first Gulf War, he grew up in a family of engineers that definitely nurtured his own interest for science.