Is it your first time to hear Model United Nations or MUN? No problem! I will explain it here as far as I know. 1st Disclaimer: I am not so expert in this field, I am also a first-timer. I am still learning too and I want to keep this in mind by writing it here.
First question, what is MUN?
MUN is actually an education simulator on how United Nations members do meeting to draft solution for a better global society. MUNer, a person who is actively participating MUN, learns about how to be a diplomat for a certain country. MUNer doesn't always come from the International Relation background. This forum is open even for senior high school students concerning global issues. In this forum, MUNer learns how to negotiate, shapes his critical mind, finds a partner for his country's resolution, speaks confidently in public, and writes a position paper. Position paper tells about the country's position regarding the issue that can be seen from the policy, past resolution, or NGO and community's role and country's resolution towards the issue. Additionally, MUN does not always represent a country, it can also be UN organizations or councils such as IMF, UNICEF, UNESCO, WHO, International Press, UNHRC, UNEP, etc.
Actually, the topic of MUN can be varied yet my previous program "Global Goals Model United Nations" that I followed had a theme "Young Generation for Realization of 17 Global Goals" that was mainly discussed 17 Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) from United Nations. Thus, it is a kind of SDGs-based approach MUN. I knew SDGs due to Student English Forum(SEF) of UNS's recruitment form in my fresh year of college. This is why I took that chance since SDGs has been my interest topic starting from early college life. I wanted to give a real impact on something that I have read. This SDGs realization issue has been globally-known and being big awareness among college students or adolescents in general who are interested in global issues. Some international youth leadership organizations like AIESEC, World Merit, YouCan, and many more make SDGs as their main concern to create social impact and movement.
Talking about the history of SDG's, you can check here UNDP : MDGs in 2000 to SDGs in 2012.
United Nations believes that SDGs can be achieved in 2030 by millennial generation actions. Its major focus is mainly eradicating poverty in the world. Eradicating poverty is not something easy, it needs to pay attention to other factors like education, social, culture, and many more rather than only the economics factor itself. No wonder that goals number 17 is a partnership for the goals. We need to collaborate with every stakeholder to make the world a better place.
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| Here it is. Which one is your global goal focus? Mine is quality education. |
MUN 101: WHAT WE DO IN MUN
Let's move on to the rule of procedure of Model United Nations. There are several setting agenda in MUN. The setting of agendas is not determined by the chair and co-chair who lead the discussion. The chair and co-chair are actually the only facilitators. However, every delegate has the same chance to set the agenda. Here why leadership is needed. Not everyone wants to take a chance to set the agenda. That's just how natural selection works, isn't it?
To make it simple
chair: pimpinan sidang, delegate: peserta MUN.
Firstly, it is the rule call. The objective of the rule call is to see whether a delegate presents only or present and voting. Additionally, rule call is to see how many delegates vote the agenda so we reach quorum or the limit of half the whole committee (delegate) plus one to pass a topic. Remember that every delegate wants to speak or show vote, the delegate should raise the plaque up so that the chair and co-chair notice which countries want to have the floor.
Secondly, it is setting the agenda. Setting the agenda means what topic in the meeting or committee session will be discussed by the whole committee later on. There are two terms here which are point and motion. Point is offered by a delegate regarding what committee want to do (discuss) meanwhile motion is offered by the whole committee to discuss a certain topic. To point, you can say something like this "The delegate of X, would like to raise a motion to discuss topic A, then, topic B."
(2nd Disclaimer: I continue writing this draft two years later, so I am so sorry if I don't recall the information well)
Thirdly, the voting session is always my favourite. It is easy hehe. You can always against the motion, you don't necessarily agree with someone. The way you vote is to raise your plaque up. The motion is cancelled if we don't reach the quorum. If more than half of the committee agree then we can proceed the next process which is
Next, it is the opening of the agenda. The chair leads the discussion by listing the general speakers. General speakers are the delegates that would like to address the topic from their country's point of view. Every speaker has 1 minute 30 seconds to address the motion. You may say something like this "The delegates of (Indonesia) would like to add to the general's speaker list." During this agenda, you can write a letter to another country privately to negotiate more about the motion. You will have a facilitator to take and bring your nice simple letter.
The next activity is the most intense one, in my opinion. It is debating session. There are two ways to discuss a certain motion either by moderated caucus or unmoderated caucus. The moderated caucus is a discussion handled by the chair. To start the session, a delegate may say "The delegate of (Malaysia) would like to raise a motion to sustain the formal debate in topic A for about (you must say the time, usually 18 minutes with 10 minutes extension)". Then, the forum will vote again whether they would pass the idea or not. On the one hand, the unmoderated caucus is a debate without a chair and a co-chair control the discussion or we can say it is a free, lively, and interactive discussion with the other delegates. This is the time when the delegates show their leadership, critical thinking, and communication skill at most. In one parliamentary procedure, we can have more than one moderated caucus and unmoderated caucus session.
! ! Special warning ! !
until this point, I forget a lot about what happened. In my note, there are rules governing points such as personal privilege, personal discomfort, and point of order. I guess these are circumstances to not join the discussion?
Move on to the very last biggest agenda; it is writing the draft resolution.
(I think before this, there is a term called working paper. However, I forget the difference between working paper and draft resolution)
Delegates will have a discussion and naturally, there will be someone that leads the discussion, other ones taking part to type whatever the ideas come, the others will give their opinion and share some insights, or someone will also analyze the pros and cons. You learn about taking responsibility in this phase. The draft resolution paper is A MUST. A document where the delegates point out a solution to the prior discussed problems, the draft resolution, is the goal of every MUN agenda. Lastly, MUN will be ended by a voting session of the draft resolution, after that, it will be a new "amendments" for the world.
There is awarding session in the MUN closing ceremony where it gives an honourable mention for the best speaker, the best delegate, and the best position paper. Other MUN events--it depends on the event organizer--will have other awards as well.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, MUN promotes many skills development like leadership, negotiation, communication, critical thinking, public speaking, collaboration etc in one set of an event consists of the discussion, debate, and writing solution for future policy.
Further reference to make you familiar with MUN even though many influencers have promoted this: to name a few Jerome Polin, Gitasav, and Skinnyfabs.
Thanks for the info.
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