UN Development Programme

Dear Delegates,

Hey all! My name is Kevin Fogarty, and I’m looking forward to seeing all of you at Harvard National Model United Nations next winter. I’m a sophomore at Harvard College from Wilbraham, Massachusetts, and next year I’ll be living in Kirkland House- residence of Mark Zuckerberg and the birthplace of everyone’s favorite website, Facebook. I’m planning on concentrating in either physics or astrophysics with a secondary in philosophy. When I’m not busily studying development issues for MUN or displacement fields for E&M, I spend my time hiking and skiing. I’ve been interested in development issues since taking a seminar on the theory and application of human rights, and I’m really looking forward to a great debate, and learning from what you all have to say!

Sincerely,

Kevin Fogarty
Director, UN Development Programme
Harvard National Model United Nations 2010

Topic Area A: Increasing Nutritional Diversity in the Developing World

Issues with food security have come to the forefront in recent years. The UN News Centre recently reported on April 30th that “Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called for a ‘closely coordinated’ response to the interconnected crises of food insecurity, extreme poverty and climate change that are being ‘exacerbated by global financial and economic turmoil of unprecedented proportions.’” The need for food quantity is a major issue, however; food security entails more than simply access to calorie heavy staple foodstuff – it is stable access to the varied and nutritious diet people need to live and function effectively. One of the main issues of the crisis that Ban Ki-moon also addressed is that people in the developing and third world, while they can afford and have access to adequate calories, suffer from a lack of a complete set of vitamins and minerals in their diets. Often, when presented with the choice between relatively cheap calorie rich foods that do not offer diverse nutrition and expensive, varied foods, at risk people will choose the former. Food diversity has important implications for quality of life and well being across the board; in fact, adequate nutrition can avert common and severe health issues and can significantly improve a quality of life. This, in turn, can improve the productivity of a workforce, and therefore lead to greater economic development.

Interesting and innovative solutions have been brought into the limelight to deal with this issue. One possibility is the use of genetically modified crops that have the potential to pack easily available, calorie rich foods with vitamins and minerals. This, however; brings up the issue of how ethical it is, if at all, to introduce genetically modified foods this way to the third world. Many scientists and agriculturalists have been working to creating nutritionally packed cross breeds and hybrids of crops grown in areas faced with malnutrition. This however; can be expensive and can take a long time to implement. Can the UNDP work with developing and third world nations to use innovations to introduce more nutritionally varied diets to their peoples? Are there ways of making new food crops more easily available? Can we find solutions with our existing selection of crops?

Topic Area B: Effects of the Economic Crisis on Unemployment in Africa

The global economic crisis promises to have unique effects for the third world and developing countries. Although in many parts of the developing world, international commercial institutions have had relatively little penetration, and so these nations have experienced little direct impact in the form of mortgage market and credit freezes- they are nonetheless being profoundly affected by a downturn in trade, commodity demand, and the potential for investment and commercial growth in their border. It is the UNDP’s mission to work on the “front lines” with these nations, and unlike in North America and Europe, oftentimes there are no networks in place that will prevent the people of these countries from directly feeling the brunt the crisis. One immediate consequence of this will be a significant impact on employment.

Joblessness is a severe issue throughout the world, and particularly in Africa. This was illustrated starkly in the May 2008 riots in South Africa, which had the effect of driving out large segments of the countries immigrant population. One of the primary factors contributing to this riot was rising competition for increasingly scarce employment. Employment is often cited as a leading factor contributing to stability in a country and is essential for other development goals to be achieved. Recently, the UNDP has worked with nations in Africa on a project which could improve the strength of African states in negotiating and managing investment contracts which could help with this goal. One possible discussion in this year’s UNDP simulation will be on methods of protecting the populations of developing countries in Africa against rampant joblessness and also on engineering solutions that can lead to job growth. We will discuss methods for dealing with the impact on job loss by the world economic crisis. Can projects like the UNDP’s contract initiative in Africa succeed? Are there ways nations can collaborate to prevent unemployment? What is to be done about job loss that does occur?