In its continued efforts towards the realisation of the goals outlined in the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda, UNITAR has joined forces with The Office of the Special Envoy of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission on Women, Peace and Security (OSE) through the secondment of a Gender Monitoring Specialist.

The course arrived at an opportune moment for Tetiana as besides providing better comprehension of food reserves in her region and establishing what more can be done to improve the system and share experiences with partners, it also expanded her knowledge in analyzing food security issues.

Did you know that when women participate in peace processes, the resulting agreement is 35% more likely to last 15 years? But did you also know that between 1992 and 2019, women represented only 13% of negotiators, 3% of mediators, and 4% of signatories in major peace processes? To combat the disconnect between these statistics, UNITAR has codeveloped with FemWise-Africa the Custodians for Peace project which empowers women with the skills and confidence to directly participate in peace processes.

Recognizing that women continue to face significant barriers to equitable and meaningful participation in peace operations, in November / December 2021, UNITAR and the UN DPO Justice and Corrections Service (JCS) jointly held an Assessment and outreach exercise for women corrections officers in Dakar, Senegal.

14 March 2022, Geneva, Switzerland - The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) has appointed iGroup founder and YPO’s Global Chairman Anastasios Economou to the Advisory Board of its Division for Multilateral Diplomacy. The two-year term takes effect from January 2022 to December 2024.

Hosna is a 19-year-old Afghan alumna of UNITAR’s 2021 digital upskilling programme, and she is distressed about the gender gap in Afghanistan. Hosna was attending university in Kabul when the Afghan regime changed overnight, in August 2021. Fearing for her safety, she fled to Iraq, where she now continues her undergraduate studies. Hosna worries about her sister and friends back home.

Maureen Nduta was born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya. Having lived in the city all her life, she wanted a fresh experience and moved to Mombasa in the coastal region. Her plans were all set: first get a small restaurant running, then start a small farm to supply produce for the restaurant, and later on enrol for a business degree. Everything seemed to be going to plan. Then COVID-19 happened.

11 March 2022, Geneva, Switzerland - The Fischer Family Scholarship is an award of €5,000 granted to one student which has been admitted in the selection procedure pertaining to the Master in Electoral Policy and Administration (MEPA) program at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna. This scholarship is attributed to cover half of the tuition costs of the Master for the 2022 April Intake.

March 2022 – Raghad Hav started with a small idea and brought it to life with the help of the 2019 UNITAR training programme Empowering Social Entrepreneurs and Youth Leaders. Raghad founded She Codes Too, where she teaches Iraqi women to code.

9 March 2022, Hiroshima, Japan – UNITAR is hosting an online conference “Closing the Digital Divide: Strengthening Digital Literacy and Infrastructure in the Sahel Region, Iraq and Afghanistan”. The conference will explore trends in digital transformation and the digital divide and how we can foster a sustainable digital transformation for all.