United Nations Development Programme
Chairs: - Suzy Englot (suzytq10@gmail.com) - Bashee Shawl (basheeshawl@gmail.com) - Rita Boettger (Amybandco@aol.com)
Topics: - Natural Disaster Management in Southeast Asia - Kashmir - Combating HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and Other Diseases
Download Chair Letter as: pdf doc
Hello, delegates! My name is Suzy Englot, and I am a senior at Manlius Pebble Hill School. This is my fifth year of MUN, and my third time chairing. Some of my other interests include playing and watching soccer, listening to music, and traveling. In this, my final time chairing, I'm hoping for lively debate with delegates that take their roles as ambassadors from other countries seriously, yet still bring creativity to the table with solutions. I look forward to meeting you all!
Hey guys, I'm Bashee Shawl, and I will be one of your chairs for the United Nations Developmental Program. This is my 2nd year doing MUN, but as an 8th grader I paged for a conference, in which gained severe depression for about a week. In my spare time I play soccer, run track, play video games, and eat my body weight in Wegmans cookies. I'm looking forward to a good committee and my own gavel which I will use a lot during sessions. Good Luck!
Hello, I'm Rita Boettger. I'm a senior from J-D and this is my second and last time chairing. Other than current events and debate, my interests include running, literature, the environment, animal rights and Kanye West. I'm looking forward to some excellent debate, and hoping that my last conference will be the best.
This committee will run a RESOLUTION style debate. Delegates are expected to hand in their resolution at the beginning of the session with many copies for fellow committee members (around 35 copies each). Delegates are also allowed to email chairs for resolution. We also highly recommend writing all three resolutions to the topics. For more questions or sending in your resolutions please contact the chairs.
This year we will continue our poster contest, which will be taking entries as your school registers the day of the conference. For more information on the event and rules, please see the Important Information page.
Thanks!
Suzy, Bashee, and Rita.
Background
As a global developmental network for the United Nations, the United Nations Development Program was founded in 1965. The primary focus of this new body in the UN was for the following goals; Democratic Governance, the Reduction of Poverty, Crisis Prevention/Recovery, Environmental and Energy issues, and the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The program also carries out the purpose of helping developing or new nations receive aid and how it is used. There is also a pledge by world leaders called "Millennium Developmental Goals," where several nations have made a list of objectives to complete by the year of 2015. In addition to giving aid to nations, the UNDP also publishes several reports to the United Nations General Assembly to give status updates on several developmental projects.
Kashmir
Kashmir is a region, north of India, east of Pakistan, and south of China. While all three nations have a stake in the area, the main nations competing for control are India and Pakistan. Due to having a majority Muslim population out of 7 million people, several residents call for an independent state, or joining with Pakistan. India and Pakistan, leaving the region in conflict without many developments in the area have fought two wars over Kashmir. Pakistan, India and China divide Kashmir. Pakistan controls the northwestern area of Kashmir, Kashmir Azad, India controls the southern are of Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir, and China controls a smaller partition of Kashmir, the Trans-Karakoram Tract and Askai Chin. Pakistan and India divided Kashmir by the Line of Control, which is used seldom for trade. Because of instability facing the region, and the trade between India and Pakistan being complicated, economic and political development has reached a significant low over the past number of years. Although India has given Kashmir more executive governing rights than any other Indian providence, Kashmir maintains 300,000 young citizens unemployed and corruption within Kashmiri government such as Moulvi Abbas Ansari, Abdul Gani Lone, and Syed Ali Shah Gilani who use development money for their own personal gain. Several NGO's like KashmirCorps, Action Aid India, and Children of Kashmir have tried to tackle these economic, education, and healthcare problems. As delegates, your task at hand weighs in for the future of economic and political stability of Kashmir.
Questions to Consider
- Who should we give development aid to?
- What NGO's should be involved?
- Should India look into corruption charges for Kashmiri leaders?
- What industries should be created in Kashmir?
- Should the Line of Control be used for more trading options?
Further Research
-- http://www.jammu-kashmir.com/insights/insight9704.html -- http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/0/6/9/1/5/p69159_index.html -- http://www.kashmircorps.org -- http://www.childrenofkashmir.orgNatural Disaster Management in Southeast Asia
Natural disasters can be defined as catastrophic events caused by some anomaly involving the Earth itself and/or the atmosphere surrounding it. Some examples are earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, avalanches, and tsunamis. In some areas of the world, such as Southeast Asia, these disasters are more prevalent and possible due to climate factors and location of tectonic plates under the Earth's surface. Plates occasionally shift, causing anything from volcanic eruptions to tsunamis. One good example of such an occurrence is the combination earthquake and tsunami that hit Southeast Asia in 2004, creating mass panic, destroying lifestyles and ecosystems, and causing thousands of deaths.
There are three main branches of this topic that should be dealt with in potential solutions: environmental security, humanitarian aid, and economic development. Environmentally, the issue is that natural disasters are not only caused by natural occurrences. Scientific studies have shown that through causing such negative phenomena as water pollution, air pollution, and helping to add carbon to the atmosphere, humans are actually playing a more significant role than we thought in aiding and abetting these catastrophes. Obviously humanitarian aid is very important, but not specifically in the jurisdiction of the UNDP.
In this committee, we are most equipped to deal with the second of those branches, and most solutions should focus on specifically targeting the issues facing countries that are trying to balance satisfying the needs of their people and the needs of the economy. The cost of dealing with natural disaster after natural disaster is a burden on developing nations, which include many countries that are affected the most by natural disasters in Southeast Asia, including Cambodia, Myanmar, and Lao PDR. These are all low-income countries that struggle to balance the needs of their people and the stability of their infrastructure, and at the moment are fighting a losing battle. There is a large difference between economic styles in this area, ranging from agriculturally-based societies to more developed, modernized systems, and some countries are sustaining growth very well, while some are still struggling with eliminating the chaos caused by disasters past. With such a plethora of different situations and circumstances, this dilemma will have to be solved in the utmost detail and care.
Combating HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and Other Diseases
By 2015 - 6 years from now - the UNDP hopes to have combated HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases. Involving this goal, three main targets have been set for the UNDP:
Target 6.A. - To have slowed and reversed the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015: 6.1 HIV prevalence among population aged 15-24 years, 6.2 Condom use at last high-risk sex, 6.3 Proportion of population aged 15-24 years with comprehensive correct knowledge of HIV/AIDS, 6.4 Ratio of school attendance of orphans to school attendance of non-orphans aged 10-14 years; Target 6.B. - Achieve, by 2010, universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for all those who need it: 6.5 Proportion of population with advanced HIV infection with access to antiretroviral drugs; Target 6.C. - Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases: 6.6 Incidence and death rates associated with malaria, 6.7 Proportion of children under 5 sleeping under insecticide-treated bednets, 6.8 Proportion of children under 5 with fever who are treated with appropriate anti-malarial drugs, 6.9 Incidence, prevalence and death rates associated with tuberculosis, 6.10 Proportion of tuberculosis cases detected and cured under directly observed treatment short course;
Malaria kills 1 million people per year or 1 child every 30 seconds, mostly African children. It affects 350-500 million people annually, causing anemia which leads to poor growth and development in children and pregnant women. Bed nets, or insecticide- treated nets (ITN), distributed by UNICEF-supported programs since 2000, can cut malaria transmission up to 60%. ITNs have the potential to decrease malaria-related child deaths by a fifth. In Ecuador, UNDP has partnered with UNAIDS and the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation to help the central Government develop a new, more far-reaching National Strategic HIV/AIDS Plan, launched in 2007. Grounded in analysis that recognizes the epidemic is more than a health concern, the plan specifies new actions on multiple fronts, from general prevention to specific interventions targeted to high-risk groups.
Questions to Consider
- How would your country modify these plans?
- Where does your country think UNDP efforts should be focused?
- What is your country's opinion on the time limit?
- How would your country act to reach these targets most efficiently?
- What is your country's opinion on these targets?
Further Research
-- http://www.mdgmonitor.org/goal6.cfm -- http://www.mdgmonitor.org/index.cfm -- http://www.undp.org/publications/annualreport2008/downloads.shtml -- http://www.worldvolunteerweb.org/mdgs.html -- http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:vab3OidjrI0J:unstats.un.org/unsd/mi/goals_2005/goal_6.pdf+UNDP+MDG+6&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=5&gl=us&client=firefox-a