UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean
UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean
Dear Delegates,
Hi! My name is Ivana and I am so excited to be your Director for ECLAC at HNMUN 2010! I absolutely love Model UN and have been going to conferences since my freshman year in high school in Brazil. I’m originally from Serbia, but moved to Boston at age 2, and then to Recife, Brazil a few years later. At Harvard I’m involved in the high school and college MUN conferences, as well as the traveling team. I also work as an editor for the Harvard International Review. As you can probably tell I’m really interested in IR, although I’m actually majoring in Econ. Other than that I enjoy beaches, chocolate, shopping, dancing, ice cream, and spring!! It’ll be awfully cold (and hopefully also snowing) in Boston by HNMUN, but I can’t wait to meet all of you!
Both of this year’s topic areas for ECLAC are very pertinent to the current economic and financial situation in the region. After the blows dealt by the financial crisis, it will be more important than ever to promote sustainable job creation and ensure that Latin American and Caribbean economies recover and grow. Furthermore, as the world’s economies grow more interconnected, it is becoming increasingly important to revise and improve governance standards, especially for transnational corporations with a significant presence in multiple countries.
I hope you are all excited for ECLAC as well, and I’m really looking forward to the conference in February!
Sincerely,
Ivana Stosic
Director, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean
Harvard National Model United Nations 2010
Topic Area A: Small Enterprise Development
Creating sustainable jobs through small enterprise development (SED) in Latin America and the Caribbean is an investment that will in the long run strengthen national economies as well as the global economy. At the same time, human activities have been putting an ever-increasing strain on the environment. Climate change, natural disasters, and biodiversity degradation are all serious problems exacerbated by economic development. Even speaking strictly in economic terms, wealth created by ecosystem services is being compromised, and environmental business risk is becoming a legitimate concern for company managers.
Successful small enterprise development depends on both sustainable job creation and an environmentally friendly approach to progress. Building human and financial capital, increasing transparency and accountability, creating an enabling business environment, and integrating small businesses into larger markets are all important components of SED. Environmental regulation, however, will also be necessary, and economic incentives should be used to better align the interests of small business owners with those of society as a whole. In Latin America and the Caribbean, a region rich in ecological resources, environmentally conscious small enterprise development is an important investment.
Topic Area B: Standards of Governance and Transnational Corporations
Transnational corporations (TNCs) have become increasingly present in Latin America as a result of globalization, and play an important role in the economies of ECLAC member nations. While TNCs can facilitate development by channeling foreign direct investment into nations, facilitating international trade, and boosting domestic productivity, they can also engage in harmful activities such as exploiting labor and national resources and stunting small-scale domestic industry.
In order to ensure that TNCs play a positive role in their host countries by stimulating economic development and improving social conditions, governments must set and enforce effective regulations and incentives. It is crucial for TNCs have effective corporate governance systems and high accountability. Additionally, not all governance standards can or should be universal, and standards must often be tailored to fit host country needs. Cooperation between TNCs and domestic corporations is necessary to maximize economic benefits to host countries. Latin America and the Caribbean, with its strong emerging markets, is a region that has much to gain from the operations of TNCs, but only to the extent that these operations are properly managed.