28 May 2021, Geneva, Switzerland - The new course, entitled Harnessing Digital Financial Technologies for Sustainable Development, places two of the world’s megatrends into focus that all of us experience on a daily basis: digital revolution and sustainable development.

26-27 May, New York, USA, online workshop - The United Nations Institute for Training and Research's (UNITAR) office in New York organized a two-day virtual workshop, “Drafting Skills: Reporting and Communications” held on 26-27 May 2021. The workshop was attended by approximately 170 delegates from developing countries around the world via video conference. To begin, the participants were welcomed by Mr. Pelayo Alvarez of UNITAR. He then introduced the workshop’s facilitator, Mr. Sandy Singer, a Lecturer and Instructor in the UN-LCP English Language Programme and Consultant and Professor in the field of Written and Oral Communication for Business. Mr. Singer outlined the themes of the two-day workshop, which focused on major challenges and best practices for UN writing. This training was supported with funding allocated from the Swedish International Development Agency’s (SIDA) contribution to the UNITAR Strategic Framework Fund, under the programme ‘Leveling The Playing Field’ which focuses on the development of skills and knowledge of Least Developing Countries.

On 27th May 2021, United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), which is a partner in the EU-funded Crowd4SDG project, organised a panel discussion “Unleashing the potential of citizen science data for monitoring the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)” as part of the Crowd4SDG project. The panel had a two-fold objective – to disseminate emerging good practices among National Statistical Offices (NSOs) and National Statistical Systems (NSSs) on leveraging citizen science for monitoring progress on SDGs and related national and local level objectives, and to create space for discussing the needs of NSOs that could be addressed through concrete citizen science projects using a challenge-based approach. Aligned with this objective, the event was conducted in two parts. The first part focussed on the key findings and recommendations from the Crowd4SDG study and case studies on the use of citizen science data for monitoring SDGs. This was followed by the presentation of Crowd4SDG tools for citizen science, the discussion on the needs of NSOs and NSSs and a call for official statistics challenges for the Crowd4SDG citizen science competition to open in summer 2021.

27 May 2021, Geneva, Switzerland - On 27 and 28 September 2021, the University Global Coalition, in partnership with the United Nations, under UNITAR's continuous support and ongoing partnership, will host its second annual conference, successively after its first online gathering in 2020. UNITAR stands among the founding signatory members of the Coalition, and is represented in its Steering Committee by the United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and Executive Director, Mr. Nikhil Seth.

25 May 2021, Geneva, Switzerland – The President of the 74th World Health Assembly and Minister of Health, Royal Government of Bhutan, Ms Dechen Wangmo visited the Defeat-NCD Partnership’s office at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) in Geneva today to set the tone at a high-level panel discussion aimed at tackling the twin challenges of COVID-19 and non-communicable diseases (NCDs). “I understand that time has passed for mere statements and rhetoric in addressing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of universal access to health”, she said. “It is time to act now”.

25 May 2021, Hong Kong, China / Hiroshima, Japan - UNITAR and ITS Education Asia will jointly launch the UNITAR Youth Ambassador Asia Pacific Programme. The 10-week programme empowers high school students to help our world build back better, greener, and stronger from the COVID-19 pandemic. The programme will debut in Hong Kong in September 2021 with the support of 20 official school partners. It will be expanded to various cities in China in 2022, followed by other Asia-Pacific countries in 2023.

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.

19 May 2021, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic - The “Autosobriety Training Programme to Prevent Drink-Driving” kicks off today, resulting from a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding between INTRANT, UNITAR and Pernod Ricard, with the common ambition to reduce alcohol-related road crashes in the Dominican Republic.

20 May 2021, Geneva, Switzerland - UNITAR is proud to announce that Professor Paul Arthur Berkman, Associated Fellow, has been awarded a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program Award to Norway for 2021-22. This award is conferred by the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

19 May 2021, New York, United States. - The UNITAR New York office conducted a workshop entitled “The Future of Diplomacy After COVID-19”. After a year like no other, it explored the impact the global pandemic has had on international cooperation and offered perspectives on what the future of multilateralism has in store. The course took place in an online format attracting 190 participants from more than sixty countries.