UNU International Courses (UNU/IC)

UNU/IC Participants,
Honoured Guests,
Colleagues, and
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Let me first of all extend my warm greetings and sincerely welcome you all to this Opening Ceremony for the 1st regular round of our International Courses this morning. As Director of UNU/IC, I am particularly happy to see 49 young people from 34 countries who will be taking our courses this year. You have been selected out of more than 200 applicants and you have my "congratulations" as well. Last year we offered a pilot version of the International Courses, but the competition was not as high as this time. Consequently we have higher expectations for you and, as the first cohort of our regular programme, I hope you will demonstrate a good example to be emulated by future cohorts.

The International Courses are an integral part of the UNU's training and capacity-building activities, and capacity building, along with research, is an important vehicle through which UNU contributes "to efforts to resolve the pressing global problems that are the concern of the United Nations and its Member States," as underscored in the UNU Mission Statement. The UNU carries out many different capacity-building activities at its Tokyo Centre, at its Research and Training Centres/Programmes located in eight different countries, and at its more than twenty associated or cooperating institutions around the world. The substantive areas we cover include software technology, leadership, natural resources management, biotechnology, geothermal energy, fisheries, water assessment, and international security.

The awarding of fellowships is also an important part of capacity building. Last year we awarded a total of 119 fellowships to scientists from different parts of the world to carry out studies in many different fields, such as in computer software at the UNU International Institute on Software Technology (or UNU/IIST) in Macao, in applied human nutrition at the University of Nairobi, Kenya, in biological diversity at the University of Gent in Belgium, in computer applications to natural resources in Africa, in food and nutrition at the Central Food Technological Research Institute in India and at the National Food Research Institute in Japan, and in geothermal energy at the National Energy Authority in Iceland. Moreover, a number of UNU institutes offer Ph.D. internship in issue areas relevant to their work. For instance, the Institute of Advanced Studies (or UNU/IAS) in Tokyo offers 10 fellowships each year to carry out research related to the theme of eco-restructuring. The Institute for New Technologies (or UNU/INTECH) in Maastricht, Netherlands collaborates with a division of the University of Maastricht to jointly offer a Ph.D. programme on the policy and economic dimensions of technical change. The World Institute for Development Economics Research (or UNU/WIDER) in Helsinki, Finland offers six-month internships on topics in development economics.

Very recently the UNU has started new capacity-building activities or expanded existing activities in Japan, the host country of the UNU Centre. Apart from the International Courses, we have lately launched the so-called Yutaka Akino Initiatives in memory of Dr. Yutaka Akino, a Japanese killed while on active UN service in Tajikistan two years ago. One of these initiatives is a 5-year research project for training young Japanese scholars in Central Asian studies. We have also increased the number of annual UNU Global Seminars from two to five. These seminars, intended to bring about a better understanding of the UN and global issues among young people living in Japan, will be held this year in Okinawa, Shimane and Hokkaido, as well as in Kanagawa Prefecture and Kobe City, two traditional sites for the UNU Global Seminars. For the past two years we have been formally collaborating with the Management and Coordination Agency in the Prime Minister's Office of Japan in organizing the Ship for World Youth Programme involving more than 300 youth from all over the world in a two-month seminar on board a Japanese ship called "The Nippon Maru" as well as at various international ports. We will continue to work with the Japanese Government in this worthy endeavour.

Indeed, the International Courses constitute a core of our capacity-building efforts in Japan. Therefore, we would like to make this first regular round a major success, and to this end we will do our very best in working with you, the participants. As in the last pilot phase, we will be paying primary attention to the quality of our teaching while maintaining a proper balance between theory and practice, between conceptual analysis and case studies. In the composition of our teaching staff we have included both scholars and practitioners. We have gathered together an interesting group of lecturers from various universities and research institutes inside and outside Japan, plus a number of NGOs and international organizations; the United Nations Children's Fund, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Development Programme, and the World Trade Organization as well as the UNU.

In preparing for our regular courses, we have tried to make improvements over the pilot courses. We will be including more case materials, particularly those representing experiences and perspectives of developing countries. We will be paying more attention to two-way class discussions rather than one-way lectures. We have installed more computers for use by the participants. We have decided to keep the Library open much longer than last time-until 8:00 p.m. on weekdays and until 4:00 p.m. on Saturdays. We have also made it possible for the participants to use the Library on the 10th and the 11th of June , the last weekend before the deadline for submission of the papers. To help you with your paper writing, the computer room, too, will be kept open much longer than last time.

We will be video-taping all the sessions (unless there is strong objection from the individual lecturers concerned) for the video-on-demand system to be shortly installed in the Library. Future participants will be able to make use of this VOD system in reviewing past lectures. We could also make use of these video-recorded lectures to improve our teaching for the future.

In the UNU/IC Handbook you have received this morning, you will find most of the needed information. But we are prepared to assist you in any way. There are course counselors as well as course organizers listed in the Handbook. Whatever questions you may have about the courses or about your papers, you can consult them during the office hours or by appointment. You are expected to complete a paper for each of the courses you are taking. Unlike last time, we asked all the course applicants to submit their paper topics in advance. Hopefully this would help you even a little bit in preparing your papers in time while taking the course, as we assume you have brought with you some of the necessary data already. The final deadline for submission of the papers is the 16th of June. I know it might be a tough job to complete two 5000-word papers while attending the courses. But it is part of the necessary exercise. We also hope you will attend all your course sessions and actively participate in discussions, because you will be graded on the basis of attendance, class performance as well as the papers. But don't worry, Ladies and Gentlemen, we are a democratic institution and toward the end of the course period you will also have an opportunity to submit your own evaluation of the courses. Moreover, we always welcome your more informal comments and feedback because we are eager to improve our International Courses.

Maybe I should stop here and let our next speakers explain their respective programme areas, Environment and Sustainable Development and Peace and Governance. In any case, I hope you will enjoy our International Courses and wish you all the best.

Thank you very much.

Prof. Hideo Sato
Director, UNU/IC

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