The programme’s coaching component has helped those selected as coaches to enhance their hard skills and improve their soft skills, which they can sometimes implement in their workplaces.

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.

Natallia noted that more and more officials and experts in the field are completing FAO-UNITAR courses, which is also conducive for the promotion of new ideas at the national level.

“When you are equipped with knowledge you don’t remain the same. You talk with confidence because you have really learned, and know it is clearer and you talk based on evidence and at the point of knowledge”.

"We were stranded in the school, unable to move anywhere because the streets were submerged, and many people lost their lives. It is caused by Coral abstraction and cutting mangroves, but climate change is making the problem even worse".

In fact, sharing ideas with people with different professional backgrounds, beliefs, and from over ten different places of origin was one of Udeaku’s main learnings and had impacted her professional and personal life.

Kossiwa J. Tossoukpe is the founder of KESecurix - Diversity in Security, and a former police officer in Zurich, Switzerland. At age 21, she was the youngest in her police academy class, and the first Black woman to join the force. Kossiwa studied at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York and the Graduate Institute in Geneva, Switzerland, where she obtained a Master's degree in International Relations and Global Security. She was also a Trainee at UNITAR's Division for Peace, supporting the pre-deployment training team. Kossiwa's consultancy firm focuses on enhancing and including the voices of female security consultants, and especially those of colour.

During the course, we talked often amongst the other participants of the ELPE. Before the ELPE, I didn’t think about SDG evaluation. Gradually, with my colleagues in the class we exchanged our knowledge and opinions. It was very effective to talk with the other colleagues from all over [the world]. We shared knowledge, and I was inspired, so I decided to start the SDG evaluation in Japan. They are also working on the SDG evaluation in their [respective] countries.

The Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE) is a joint mechanism between five UN agencies, of which the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) is one. Hosted and led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), PAGE aims to help Member States embark on a greener and more inclusive growth trajectory by putting sustainability at the heart of economic policies and practices to advance the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.