The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) provides innovative learning solutions to individuals, organizations, and institutions to enhance global decision-making and support country-level action for shaping a better future.
The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) provides innovative learning solutions to individuals, organizations and institutions to enhance global decision-making and support country-level action for shaping a better future.
UNITAR was created in 1963 to train and equip young diplomats from newly-independent UN Member States with the knowledge and skills needed to navigate through the diplomatic environment.
Over the years, UNITAR has acquired unique expertise and experience in designing and delivering a variety of training activities. We have become a leading institute in the provision of customized and creative learning solutions to institutions and individuals from both public and private sectors.
With a strategy fully focused on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), UNITAR supports Governments to implement the 2030 Agenda.
We transform mindsets by offering learning, analytical and capacity-centred solutions for a more sustainable world.
We launched a new four-year strategic framework, covering 2018-2021, which is aligned with the 2030 Agenda and uses the Sustainable Development Goals as the guiding principle for our work with the strategic objectives organized around four out of five thematic pillars of the 2030 Agenda (Peace, People, Planet and Prosperity).
In addition to the four thematic pillars, the cross-cutting nature of our work on strengthening multilateral diplomacy, promoting the 2030 Agenda, and delivering applied research solutions through technology and data (UNOSAT) contributes to delivering our products and services in all pillars.
UNITAR provides training and capacity development activities to assist mainly developing countries with special attention to Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and other groups and communities who are most vulnerable, including those in conflict situations.
In 2020, UNITAR delivered close to 900 learning and related activities, including training, learning and knowledge sharing events, benefiting more than 300,000 participants – about 79% of whom were from developing countries including Least Developed Countries (LDCs).
Fifty-nine per cent of the Institute’s activities are delivered face-to-face, whilst thirty-eight per cent are delivered via UNITAR’s e-Learning platform. Seventy-eight per cent of UNITAR’s face-to-face activities take place at the country level, whilst some are conducted from UNITAR’s Headquarters in Geneva, as well as through its Offices in New York and Hiroshima.
UNITAR is governed by a Board of Trustees and is headed by an Executive Director.
The Institute is a project-based organization and does not receive any funds from the regular United Nations budget. UNITAR is financed entirely from voluntary contributions derived mainly from UN Member States, other UN agencies, international and intergovernmental organizations, foundations NGOs and the private sector.
We work in the spirit of leaving no one behind and we strive to reach the furthest first. To achieve this, our training plan depends also on donor support. We appeal to donor countries and other donor entities to help us so we can design and deliver high-quality training especially to countries in special situations.
STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK
UNITAR is guided by a four-year strategic framework which articulates the Institute’s vision, mission, core values and strategic objectives and enablers. The framework outlines the direction that UNITAR will take and serves as the foundation for planning and budgeting, mobilizing resources, crafting partnerships, delivering results and measuring and evaluating performance.
The framework was approved by the UNITAR Board of Trustees in November 2017. The framework is aligned with the 2030 Agenda and is structured around five pillars that correspond to four of the five thematic pillars of the 2030 Agenda: Peace, People, Planet and Prosperity. The framework includes a fifth objective aimed at supporting the integrated and indivisible nature of the Agenda through crosscutting programming. Four strategic enablers are also identified, including people and partnerships; quality, learning and evaluation; strategic communication; and business processes.
VISION, MISSION AND CORE FUNCTIONS
OUR VISION
“A world in which individuals, institutions and organizations are equipped with the knowledge, skills and other capacities to overcome global challenges.”
The vision for which the Institute aims reflects a drive for results and programming to develop the capacities of individuals, institutions and organizations with a view to overcoming global challenges.
OUR MISSION
“To develop the individual, institutional and organizational capacities of countries and other United Nations stakeholders through high-quality learning solutions and related knowledge products and services to enhance decision making and to support country-level action for overcoming global challenges.”
OUR CORE FUNCTIONS
- Providing high-quality learning solutions to address the capacity development needs of individuals, organizations and institutions;
- Advising and supporting governments, the UN and other partners with knowledge services, including those that are technology-based;
- Facilitating knowledge and experience sharing through networked and innovative processes; and
- Integrating innovative strategies, approaches and methodologies into our learning and related knowledge products and services.
Today, the scope of UNITAR programming is truly global with an outreach spanning the entire membership of the United Nations and with over 300,000 individuals benefitting from the delivery of some 900 training and related events yearly. Never before has the Institute’s programming been as diverse as it is presently, with a wide range of learning and other types of events covering topics in the broad areas of multilateralism; economic development and social inclusion; environmental sustainability and green development; sustainable peace; and research and technology applications.
The Institute has also greatly diversified the delivery of training, with e-Learning courses accounting for 78% of all events due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and learners from all corners of the world benefitting from the Institute’s virtual learning environment. In carrying out its mission, the Institute naturally places much emphasis on delivering learning-related products and services, on transferring knowledge, imparting skills and raising awareness with an aim to bring about changes in behavior, and to develop other capacities of its beneficiaries.
Parallel to learning, the Institute also engages in training-related and other advisory support services to governments at achieving broader social and economic development outcomes, such as developing institutional capacities.
HISTORY AND STATUTE
HISTORY
The idea of a UN training and research institute was mentioned for the first time in a 1962 resolution of the UN General Assembly (resolution 1827 (XVII) of 18 December 1962). The founding of UNITAR in 1963 followed the recommendation of the Economic and Social Council to the General Assembly, which commissioned the Secretary-General with the establishment of a United Nations Institute for Training and Research as an autonomous body within the UN system (Economic and Social Council – Thirty-sixth Session Annexes Document E/3780 United Nations Training and Research Institute – Note by the Secretary-General, 28 May 1963, General Assembly resolution 1934 (XVIII) of 11 December 1963).
The Institute celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2013 with commemoration events organized in New York and Geneva.
The creation of UNITAR occurred at the most opportune time in the history of the UN, coinciding with the addition of 36 States since 1960, including 28 African States. That unprecedented wave of decolonization created a critical need for assistance, as many of the newly-independent States lacked the capacity to train their young diplomats. Shaped by its first four Executive Directors originally from newly-independent African States, the Institute’s vision of training was developed in light of the very needs and priorities of recipient countries.
UNITAR commenced functioning in March 1965. The Institute originally had its headquarters based in New York and a European Office in Geneva. In 1993, UNITAR’s headquarters were transferred to Geneva.
The Institute was to become a remarkable instrument for developing countries and countries in transition to access pragmatic solutions, informed by practical research on policy practices, to address emerging management issues in various domains. Over the past decades UNITAR has acquired a unique expertise, accumulating experience, knowledge and capacities to design and implement a variety of training activities.
The small size of the Institute and its independence within the United Nations system enable it to respond with a high degree of flexibility to new challenges in the area of training and research.
STATUTE
The Statute constitutes the basis of UNITAR’s legal existence, setting out the purposes and functions of the Institute as decided by the General Assembly resolution 1934 (XVII) of 11 December 1963 and taking into account amendments and revisions since then.
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