UNCTAD organized its annual training programme, a collaboration between UNCTAD's Assistance to the Palestinian People Unit (APPU) and the United Nations Division for Palestinian Rights, for staff of the State of Palestine.
Due to the escalation of conflict in the occupied Palestinian territory in July and August, this year's training programme was extended only to Soumoud Abu Ayyash, a diplomat from the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, instead of two Palestinian professionals as in previous years.
 Somoud Abu Ayyash (PNA) and Petko Draganov, Deputy Secretary-General (UNCTAD) |
The objective of the programme is to familiarize Palestinian diplomats and other government staff with UNCTAD's activities, and the functions of other United Nations agencies and other international organizations based in Geneva.
Along with diplomats from the Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine to the United Nations Office at Geneva, Ms. Abu Ayyash participated in the sixty-first session of UNCTAD's Trade and Development Board and its deliberations on UNCTAD's Report on Assistance to the Palestinian People, and followed the Board's discussions of other agenda items, including globalization and interdependence; development strategies; trade, investment and macroeconomic policies in developing countries.
Ms. Abu Ayyash also attended meetings of the Human Rights Council and the World Trade Organization as part of her introduction to the work of other international agencies in Geneva.
In addition, she had meetings with relevant staff during her visits to the premises of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the International Labour Office, the World Intellectual Property Organization, and the International Trade Centre.
The three-week programme was concluded on 3 October with a ceremony at which UNCTAD Deputy Secretary-General Mr. Petko Draganov handed Ms. Abu Ayyash a certificate of successful completion of the programme.
