AFMUN 2017 Research Report
Sustainable Development Goals- Ways to transform
our world concerning:
- Health and well-being
- Education
- Gender equality
- Poverty
- Peace, justice and strong institutions
Forum: The General Assembly
Issue: Sustainable Development Goals
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Ways to transform our world
Table of contents:
I.
Introduction
II. Definition of Key Terms
a) What is sustainable development?
b) Sustainable Development Goals
c) Millennium Development Goals
d) MEDC’s and LEDC’s
III. General Overview
a) Good health and well-being
b) Quality education
c) Gender Equality
d) No poverty
e) Peace, justice and strong institutions
IV. Committees V. Dress Code
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I.
Introduction/Message from the Secretariat
Dear AFMUN 2017 delegates,
This year’s 12th AFMUN Conference will deal with the topic of the “Sustainable
Development Goals – ways to transform our world” and we are delighted to
see you participating.
The Sustainable Development Goals are 17 goals established in September
2015 by a coalition of countries within the UN and present a set of desired
achievements such as ending poverty, ensuring education for all and the
equality of the sexes which should be attained successfully within the next 15
years.
The 12th annual AFMUN Conference aims to establish a socio economic and
political platform for everyone, and serves as an inspiration for all participating
countries to work together in order to establish a better world. The topics we
have selected, reflect the urgency of the challenges at hand and are assigned
to the appropriate UN agencies, allowing delegates to debate the issues in
their Committees. You will be confronted with the topics of poverty, good
health and well-being, quality education as well as focus on gender equality
and peace, justice and strong institutions.
This Research Report should be a helpful assistance for you to understand the
achievements which are connected with the Sustainable Development Goals
and will give you an overview of the current problems. Additionally, it will
define every topic mentioned above, so that you will get a basic knowledge
about them. It is your obligation as a delegate to be well-informed at the
conference as you have to represent your country’s policy appropriately.
Therefore, you should do additional research on the policy of your respective
country.
We are looking forward to seeing you and hope for fruitful debates,
Chairs of the Anne-Frank Model United Nations Conference 2017.
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II.
Definition of Key Terms
a) Sustainable development has been defined as development that
meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs.It calls for joint efforts
towards building an inclusive, sustainable and resilient future for people
and the planet.
b) The Sustainable Development Goals consist of 17 goals each
aimed at ending poverty, protecting the planet, and ensuring prosperity
for all as part of a new sustainable development agenda. Each goal has
specific targets to be achieved over the next 15 years.
c) The Millennium Development Goals consist of eight goals which
range from halving extreme poverty rates to halting the spread of
HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target
date of 2015. Even though those cannot be used in the Resolution, they
form a helpful assistance in researching the topic.
d) Most Economically Developed Countries (MEDC’s) are countries with
more resources, higher salaries and housing accessibilities .A MEDC
will have a lower birth rate and also a low death rate due to advanced
Medical Technology. Therefore, the country will have a lower baby
population and a higher elderly population
Less Economically Developed Countries (LEDC’s) have a high birth rate
and also a high death rate due to poor health care and different types of
diseases. They are countries in which living conditions are tough and
people do not have much money to get resources. The countries are
also very poorly developed and the birth rate is high.
I.
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II.
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General Overview
a) Good health and well-being
Ensuring healthy living and promoting the well-being of all at all ages is
essential to sustainable development. Significant strides have been made
since the UN Millennium Conference in 2000 in increasing life expectancy and
reducing some of the common causes of death associated with child and
maternal mortality. Major progress has been made on increasing access to
clean water and sanitation, reducing malaria, tuberculosis, polio and the
spread of HIV/AIDS. However, many more efforts are needed to fully eradicate
a wide range of diseases and address many different persistent and emerging
health issues.
Child Health
Children are the future of our planet
and are an essential part of
sustainable development. However,
more than six million children die
before their fifth birthday every year,
most of which occurs in regions of
sub-Saharan Africa, Southern Asia
and developing countries.
Improving child care and investing in
our future is an important step to be
taken, supporting countries in
delivering integrated and effective
child care. Starting with a healthy
pregnancy for the mother, through
birth and care up provided for infants
and children of up to five years of age
is crucial to the child’s development.
Maternal Health
Maternal health refers to the health situation of women during pregnancy,
childbirth and the postpartum period. This is a crucial issue targeted in the
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Millennium Development Goals of 2015. No access to skilled routine or health
care facilities along with unsafe abortions is the main reason why in 2013 an
estimated 289 000 women died globally during pregnancy or childbirth, most of
which could have been prevented easily. 99% of these deaths occur in
developing countries like sub-Saharan Africa. Here, unlike in the developed
world, where a woman’s lifetime risk of dying during pregnancy and childbirth
is 1 in 3700, the risk of maternal death is very high at 1 in 38. We, as the United Nations have to tackle this issue and ensure a stable
environment and high quality healthcare for everyone at all ages with focus on
pregnant women.
In order to ensure this the WHO has established various plans to decrease the
number of maternal deaths for which a strong political will and commitment of
any country is crucial. Access to quality care before, during and after childbirth
has to be improved, contraception and abortion services must be available
everywhere. There has to be a higher accountability so that every death is
documented and its cause properly recorded. Strong health systems with
trained health workers and essential medicine are needed, as well as water
sanitation, hygiene,
education and nutrition
along with efforts to reach
everyone, everywhere with
emphasis on rural regions,
poor communities and
developing countries.
As being part of the
Sustainable Development
Agenda, the target is to
reduce the global mortality
ratio to less than 70 per
100 000 live births
between 2016 and 2030.
HIV/Aids, Malaria and other diseases
HIV is a virus that gradually attacks the immune system, which is our body’s
natural defence against illness. If a person becomes infected with HIV, they
will find it harder to fight off infections and diseases. The virus destroys a type
of white blood cell called a T-helper cell and makes copies of itself inside
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them. T-helper cells are also referred to as CD4 cells. However, with early
diagnosis and effective antiretroviral treatment, people with HIV can live a
normal, healthy life.
AIDS is a syndrome caused by the HI virus. It is when a person’s immune
system is too weak to fight off many infections and it develops when the HIV
infection is very advanced. This is the last stage of HIV infection when the
body can no longer defend itself and may develop various diseases, infection.
If left untreated, it results in death.
There is currently no cure for HIV or AIDS. However, with the right treatment
and support, people can live long and healthy lives with HIV. In order to ensure
this, proper treatment has to be available everywhere and people have to be
educated about HIV/AIDS, its consequences and ways of transmission.
Relevant United Nations Documents and other Organizations
-
WHOs Constitution regardig health:
http://apps.who.int/gb/bd/PDF/bd47/EN/constitution-en.pdf
UNICEFs Strategy for Health:
http://www.unicef.org/health/files/UNICEF_Health_Strategy_Final.pdf
The World Bank
Non-governmental Organizations(NGOs): Project Hope, Oxfam,
International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement
Possible Solutions/Goals
a) By 2030, end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and
neglected tropical diseases and combat hepatitis, water-borne diseases
and other communicable diseases
b) Achieve universal health coverage, including financial risk protection,
access to essential quality health-care services and access to safe,
effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all
c) Strengthen the capacity of all countries, in particular developing
countries, for early warning, risk reduction and management of national
and global health risks
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b) Quality Education
Another issue is attempted to be
solved in this year’s AFMUN
conference is the goal of quality
education that read to “ensure
inclusive and quality education for
all and promote lifelong learning”.
The school system of our world
generally consists of primary and
secondary school, which in most
countries are free. After that
everyone is free to obtain a higher
education such as an university
degree.
Obtaining a quality education is a
very important step towards
sustainable development and also
fundamental to improve every
citizen's life. Basically the goal is to
reach a minimum level of
education for every child in the
world. The fact that there are still
too many people without basic
education, which means the basics
of reading, writing and mathematics, is the reason for this. Even lessons
adjusted to the local circumstances could be possible if they are helping the
children and their families to survive, for example learning how to effectively
grow crops in the agronomy. However, problems like poverty play an important
role in the availability of education especially in LEDC’s. Poor families cannot
afford to send their children to school even if the school is free, because they
need their children’s working power in order to earn enough money to survive.
There are already some projects, mostly initiated by non-governmental
organizations (NGOs), trying to enable school attendance.
Your task is to think about reasonable and realistic inducements for children to
get them to attend school. Furthermore, it is very important to think about a
way of financing all measures, e.g. new school buildings, school material,
teachers. To improve such a situation, you can involve some NGOs.
Furthermore, the UN should think about a way to guarantee the chance of
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education for everyone no matter their country of origin. Boys and girls,
women and men need to have the same chance of quality education.
Possible Solutions/Goals
a) By 2030 ensure that all children get free, equitable and quality primary
and secondary education
b) make sure that education prepares for living in society
c) encourage school attendance
d) see to all women and men having access to affordable and quality
technical, vocational and tertiary education such as, but not limited to
universities
e) fight illiteracy
f) consider economic situation in the country (MEDC vs. LEDC)
g) consider political approach towards education (restriction, regulations,
ideals)
c) Gender Equality
In advance it is necessary to clarify the meaning of both words, gender and
equality. Basically gender just declares special body features belonging to
either a woman or a man as well as that they should act according to some
rules constructed by society, including norms, roles and their behaviour in a
relationship, community or group. On the other hand, equality defines the state of being the same in every way.
With a view on gender equality, this is also known as formal equality of
opportunity. It means that women and men have the same rights, the same
rules and the same norms in society. However, gender equality is often linked
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to feminism and therefore being a feminist. A feminist is someone, who
believes in the theory of the political, economic and social equality of the
sexes.
Promoting gender equality and empowering women is self-evident for most
countries but in almost all LEDC’s women are still oppressed. This mostly
concerns the political sector, therefore only a few women are involved in
political decision making and, whilst most countries are developing in order to
ensure the equality of the sexes, there are still others struggling with this issue.
Those inequalities mostly occur in Arabic or African countries, where there is a
high percentage of Muslims within the general population. In countries like
that, the law is adapted to religious and cultural habits (see M1 and M2), thus
women have different rights compared to men. Furthermore, a high number of
women have to face domestic violence or are forced into marriages, since they
have their fixed role as subordinated to men. Inequality is a constant issue,
nevertheless in 2011 the UN General Assembly resolution on women’s
participation called for female participation in politics and states that: “Pluralist
democracy requires
balanced participation of
women and men in political
[…] decision-making", on
account of this equal rights
for women are an essential
part of sustainable
development.
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Although a lot of countries are progressing by providing education for girls and
women, there are still other problems to be solved. It is not as popular
anymore as it once was that men are the ones earning money and women
stay at home e.g. to raise the children or take care of the housework.
However, women are still less involved in political decision making and work.
Some countries even introduced laws imposing a gender quota in order to
ensure a certain percentage of women to be involved in the parliament or
branches of industry. You may differentiate between different types of gender
quotas. Some even say that women should be prefered even if men have the
same or better qualifications in order to reach a certain quota. However, this
result in a discrimination against men. Therefore, it needs to be reconsidered
whether gender quota really can provide equality.
UNICEF claims that gender equality "means that women and men, and girls
and boys, enjoy the same rights, resources, opportunities and protections. It
does not require that girls and boys, or women and men, be the same, or that
they be treated exactly alike." Yet women are more likely to be poor or
homeless since they have less access to employment for example. Thus a
goal to achieve is gender-mainstreaming, the process of assessing the
implications for each gender for any planned action such as legislation. As a
result the needs of women and men should be considered and fulfilled.
Given this information you should think about issues like Feminism, Masculism
or Sexism with view on ways to solve these problems by keeping in mind
targets, such as ending all forms of discrimination against women or the
promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women at all levels.
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Possible Solutions/Goals
a) promote gender equality and gender-mainstreaming
b) work on ending symptoms of gender inequality
c) pay special attention to the situation of women in the LEDCs
d) No Poverty
Definition of Poverty:
“Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and
not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school
and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the
future, living one day at a time.
Poverty has many faces, changing from place to place and across time,
and has been described in many ways. Most often, poverty is a situation
people want to escape. So poverty is a call to action -- for the poor and
the wealthy alike -- a call to change the world so that many more may
have enough to eat, adequate shelter, access to education and health,
protection from violence, and a voice in what happens in their
communities.” (the World Bank Organization)
Poverty is about not having enough money to meet basic needs including
food, clothing and shelter. However, poverty is more, much more than just not
having enough money.
Poverty generally can be differentiated into two types:
Absolute poverty is synonymous with destitution and occurs when people
cannot obtain adequate resources (measured in terms of calories or nutrition)
to support a minimum level of physical health. Absolute poverty means about
the same everywhere, and can be eradicated as demonstrated by some
countries.
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Relative poverty occurs when people do not meet a certain minimum level of
living standards as determined by a government (and enjoyed by the majority
of the population) that vary within countries, sometimes even within the same
country.
Causes of poverty
There are several factors that contribute to the existence of poverty. The
uneven distribution of economic resources such as wealth, employment and
infrastructure as well as of social resources like health services, education,
transport and housing, means that not all the people have the same
opportunities. There are also some other factors such as, but not limited to:
-
Work: being unemployed or in a low-paid job makes people more likely
to live in poverty
Age: many older people and children whose parents are poor are at
greater risk of poverty
-
Health: people with long-term diseases or disabilities are at greater risk
of poverty
-
Education: people who left school early or without qualifications are
more likely to experience poverty
-
Family: one-parent families are more likely to be poor than two-parent
families or single ones
-
Location: living in a disadvantaged community or in an area with few
employment opportunities increases the risk of poverty
The effects of poverty
Poverty has a negative effect on people's quality of life, on the opportunities
open to them, and on their ability to participate fully in society. Therefore
poverty has an impact on every aspect of a person's life, for example:
-
Money and debt
Education
Health
Housing
Social Inclusion
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e) Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Defining the term “peace”:
“The concept of peace emerges between heterogeneous social
communities and is characterized by a lack of conflict and freedom from
fear of violence. Commonly understood as the absence of hostility, peace
often involves compromise, and therefore is initiated with thoughtful
listening and communication to enhance and create mutual
understanding.”
United Nations Blue Helmets
The United Nations Organisation originated following the Second World War.
Its main assignment was and still is the reconstruction and maintenance of
international peace and security. Actions for keeping the peace have been
required in several countries all over the world and with the rising number of
member states more troops were needed. Consequently, the United Nations
Blue Helmets were developed, acting as part of the UN Forces with special
permissions or alternatively specific restrictions. Blue Helmet Duties include a) Peacekeeping
b) Peacemaking
c) Peacebuilding
d) Peace enforcement
e) Conflict prevention
(For more information: Code of Conduct)
UN Peacekeeping Operations were formerly supposed to implement
ceasefires or to facilitate ceasefires between two hostile communities. Today's
Peacekeeping Operations protect civilians, promote human rights and are
supporting the judiciary system in regions in which the country's governmental
authority has no impact on the greater parts of the population.
The errand of peacemaking is not restricted to governmental organizations,
such as the UN only. NGOs (e. g. Amnesty International) and political role
models acting independent of any organization (e. g. Mahatma Gandhi) also
take part in the process. Peacemaking is the precursor of the “peacebuilding”,
hence peacemaking is “action to bring hostile parties to agreement” by
peaceful means. In this sense, peacemaking is a diplomatic effort intended to
move a violent conflict into non-violent dialogue.
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The peacebuilding process aims to maintain and sustain the just preserved
peace over a longer period of time (e.g. remaining UN Forces in Afghanistan).
Thus, the UN Forces are allowed to strengthen national capacities at all levels
in order to grant that disturbances within the population are being solved
quickly and that bigger riots are prevented from forming. As the peacebuilding
process' aim is to sustain peace, those forces are allowed to punish
“troublemakers” in form of making them stand trial. Generally summarized the
measures address core issues to prevent relapsing into conflict again.
Peace enforcement as a way to preserve peace can be quite harmful, since
military forces take action. As the name already states, UN troops (no Blue
Helmets) force combatants against their will either to implement a ceasefire or
alternatively commence with further attacks on the combatants. These
engagements are controlled by the member states of the Security Council of
the United Nations, which are operating after certain agreements (UN Charter)
directly set up in the founding process of the United Nations Organization.
Conflict prevention is used to keep non-violent riots from escalating into a
violent conflict. Hence, the UN Forces need to analyze the circumstances
before taking action.
The Example of the Gulf War
The Gulf War is a perfect example for the Peace Enforcement. Iraq's
governmental structure had been the dictatorship back in 1990 and Iraq's head
of state was Saddam Hussein, who ordered his army to invade Kuwait, the
United States major supplier of oil. It was easy for the Iraqi army to take over
Kuwait, because the United Nations had provided them many military goods over the 8-Year-War with Iran. Thus, Iraq had the fourth largest army in the
world. The Iraq threatened Saudi Arabia which also provided oil for the USA.
In combination with the United Nations Security Council, the US and more
allies of Saudi Arabia Operation Desert Shield, the Protection of Saudi Arabia
from the Iraqi Army, took action. An ultimatum was posed: Iraq ought to leave
Kuwait until January 15, 1991 otherwise they would face the full power of the
US and their allies. Iraq failed to respond and the bombardment of the Iraqi
Army was commenced. The Allies bombed Iraqi until February 24. Within 100
hours the Allies recaptured the whole of Kuwait and the South of Iraq with the
help of their powerful ground army.
Justice
International disputes may occur violently and non-violently. As a matter of fact
non-violent disputes often tend to escalate quickly into violent conflicts which,
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for instance, can be seen clearly in the situation of South Sudan back in 2012.
South Sudan has had bloody outbursts of civil war, in which the opposition
SPLA-IO fought against the government. This known as the South Sudanese
Civil War which was at the edge of escalating right into a full-scale war
between the SPLA-IO and the South Sudanese Government. However, the
UN has taken action and is currently still operating within the UNMISS (United
Nations Mission in South Sudan). Since this has been a peacekeeping
operation, one of the major achievements the UN set up is: Protecting
Civilians. Next to the aspect of safeguarding, the strict compliance of the rule
of law and the human rights plays a major relevance in the complex progress
of peacekeeping and protection of civilians. The UN aims to make sure to
provide a peaceful and moreover secure accommodation or surrounding,
appropriate health-care and sanitary goods for affected civilians in lifethreatening circumstances.
For this approach of not only ensuring peace, the UN crafted a body that is
responsible, when operating, “[...] for handling internal disputes and
disciplinary matters in the United Nations [...]” the UNIJS (United Nations
Internal Justice System). Moreover, this system ought to be an “[...]
independent, professionalized, expedient, transparent and decentralized [...]”
one that has been permitted to act on 1st July 2009.
Tackling corruption and bribery
The topic of tackling corruption and bribery forms a fundamental aspect of
achieving peace and justice. As The World Bank IDA states, there are some
essential ways of fighting corruption in all its forms. If civil servants, working in
public services, are being paid well and can support their families there is no reason for them to supplement their income in “unofficial” ways, what we
consider bribery and corruption. Secondly, transparency on all governmental
spending is tremendously important. This barely finds recognition in numerous
countries all over the world. Transparency is often underrated and therefore
not supported, for example in dictatorships. Transparency is not only essential
in view of money it can also help to make efforts to ensure that resources will
be used in the public interest. Additionally, it makes tribunal processes more
open and thus prevents abuse of the rule of law. Amongst all these precious
suggestions on how to tackle these problems, which partly have been taken
into action, there are still more to find. (Fight Bribery and Corruption)
Registered Infants
By 2030 everybody within the UN is supposed to be registered legally so that
certain bodies and member states are aware of who is being accommodated
beneath UN supervision and with whom they would have to deal if conflicts,
violent or non-violent, should arise. Moreover, having all children registered
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would make it easier to track down child trafficking as well as child slavery and
to protect even more people in rural and urban regions where terrorist
organizations, such as but not limited to ISIS and Boko Haram, threaten the
peace and security of those certainly vulnerable people.
Women and children are often targeted in conflicts - by abuse, violence and
even killing. As an example of cruel treatments the UN recently confirmed the
existence of a price list for infant slaves, which was published by ISIS. Despite
that, all the ferocious news coming from conflict zones it is false to assume
that this issue subsists only there – violence towards women and children
happens all over the world.
That is why countries should invest into the shelter of the vulnerable,
especially children, to tackle the issue of violence and torture until 2030.
VI. Committees Asian Committee
Nina Hübner
Isabelle Klemm
Dennis Kurz
African Committee
Robina Schwedler
Noah Passehl
Lewis Osborn
[email protected]
[email protected]
European Committee
Annabelle Paulat
Annika Kühle
Anton Schlopsnies
Alicia Puttkammer
Latin American Committee
Neele Peterson
Justine Jadzevics
Anna Stolzke
[email protected]
[email protected]
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V. Dress Code
Suits
A suit always looks professional and is the best option. Be sure to keep suits
clean and wrinkle-free. Tops
No T-shirts. A collared and button-down shirt, a blouse, or an appropriate
sweater is required. Dresses are also appropriate, as long as they are not too
revealing and adequate in length (follow the rules set for skirt length). Bottoms
No jeans or shorts. Slacks and suit-pants are acceptable. Skirts must be worn
with pantyhose/stockings. Skirts should not be more than two Inches (five
centimetres) above the knee. Bottoms should have a subtle pattern; avoid loud
designs. Shoes
No sneakers or open-toe sandals. Loafers or other types of dress shoes are
preferred. Keep your shoes both professional-looking and comfortable. Hair
Keep hair clean and neat. If you have long hair, tie it back for a professional
look. Jewellery/Piercings
If you have piercings on your face, other than in your ears, it is best to remove
the rings or studs during the conference for a professional look.
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