Have you ever considered how
voting takes place at the United Nations? Have you ever envisaged being the
President of Malawi for two hours? How would you allocate 1 billion dollars to
achieving just one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in your country?
Can you argue a case for a single goal to be given priority?
These and many other issues were
the central topics of a session in the GEO1010 Geography and Development module
delivered on Wednesday 12th November by Frank Sudlow, representing
the UK NGO, CAFOD. Student groups were each given a country to represent at the
United Nations and had to argue for major funding for one of the MDGs. Several
rounds of voting took place with the Presidents of countries being given the
opportunity to persuade their counterparts to vote in a particular way.
At the end of a very enjoyable
session in which delegates adopted their roles with much enthusiasm, two of the
eight MDGs were selected. One was MDG 2 dealing with universal primary
education and the other MDG8 dealing with global partnerships.
It was pointed out to the
‘delegates’ that a similar exercise is currently being undertaken by
representatives of over 180 countries, each having a single vote at the General
Assembly. They are trying to agree a set of Goals for the next 15 years; goals
that will hopefully continue and develop the many positive gains made since
2000.
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