UN Debate

From doing this exercise I have learnt that the so called ‘developed’ countries such as USA and China are not as sustainable as they like to think they are. They are apparently the richer countries but when compared to countries such as Denmark they really are doing little to improve sustainable development in their country.

It was quite hard to find information about the Solomon Islands as they do not actually have a National Sustainable Development Plan. However the other policies such as the National Health Policy was quite easy to find as it was already in place and the country view this policy as quite important and we found this coming up quite a bit in internet searches. It was also quite difficult to find many plans and policies because the Solomon Islands are small and with a population of only half a million they are going to be harder to find than say Denmark. Also with the Islands only just coming out of conflict in 2003 they are only just starting to build their country back up which means that any plans or policies that the country wants to develop are going to be new and probably basic.

It was surprised as all countries have completely different approaches to the idea of sustainable development. For instance the USA wanted the money to help its army and navy but to also try to help Africa whilst countries such as Malawi who have barely any national exports want to use it to try and help their national people. I got the impression that the poorer countries had much more genuine ideas of what to use the money for. Why should the USA be given money to improve its army whilst countries in Africa have to sustain droughts and frequent starvation just so the USA can attack a few more countries?

I think our presentation went ok however I lost the plot half way through which didn’t help. However we said everything that we needed to say and got our point across within the time limit set. I think we highlighted well the policy and plans currently in place and clearly defined what the money would be used for. If we were to do the exercise again I think practice would be key as I think if we were more confident with what we were to say then perhaps it would have come across a bit better and the nervousness wouldn’t show so much in the presentation.

I did enjoy this exercise and I think I have learnt more from it than I would have done if it were done in a normal lecture. I think by having a debate it makes you think more widely around the subject as you want to ask the other countries questions to find out more (and to see them squirm).

Overall I think we worked well as a team and found that we got on and was able to research and present our findings.