UNITAR and South Africa's Department of International Relations and Cooperation convened a training workshop to help strengthen the knowledge and skills of those government officials whose work relates to climate change diplomacy, in preparation for South Africa's presidency of COP 17.
March 2011: The UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), in partnership with South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation, held a training workshop on climate change diplomacy for officials from various government ministries.
The workshop, which was held from 28 February-4 March 2011, aimed to enhance these government officials’ understanding and appreciation of the challenges, opportunities and risks related to the ongoing progress of multilateral negotiations on climate change. The focus of the workshop was on strengthening the knowledge and skills of those government officials whose work relates to climate change diplomacy, in order to support inter-ministerial coordination and preparations in the run-up to the 17th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 17) to the UNFCCC to be held in Durban, South Africa, at the end of the year.
It included lectures, discussions and practical sessions covering a broad range of topics, reflecting the breadth of the challenges posed by climate change. It also included practical training sessions on negotiating skills and consensus building in multilateral conference diplomacy, to improve understanding of the details of current negotiation deadlocks and how these may be overcome in the forthcoming climate change negotiations. [UNITAR Press Release]