EXTREME POVERTY AND HUNGER
By Cameron Spring
The council met today to debate the resolution on extreme poverty and hunger. With many nations keen to see some of the more developed nations do more to help eradicate poverty.
Extreme poverty is crippling Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world. South Africa emphasised the butterfly-effect of poverty. Both representatives reminded the assembly that extreme poverty almost always leads to a rise in theft.
“A past that is not remembered is a past which will inevitably be repeated”. The South Korean representative added powerfully.
The topic of Extreme Poverty and Hunger was sponsored by Sweden and Bolivia. The debate started off by the two explaining the priorities of the United Nations, and how Extreme Poverty and Hunger should be near the top of the organisations metaphorical to-do list. The representatives explained how 370 million dollars of funding was going towards the world hunger cause, in the hope it would eventually exterminate the issue.
Bolivia also stated that rich, developed countries should be supporting poverty and hunger ridden countries. The representative also explained how Bolivia is an example of a poverty ridden country which has managed to decrease poverty within their country in order to give their citizens a better quality of life.
Furthermore, Bolivia went on to remind the assembly that “hunger is just one aspect of it”. The representative stated that issues spiralling from hunger are the main cause for concern - for example, malnutrition & child mortality rates.
At this point the Afghanistan representatives reminded the assembly that it is one of the poorest countries within the United Nations, and how it constantly struggles with a marginal scale of hunger & poverty related issues.
Countries also bought up the issue of wealth being distributed unevenly, and how in Western Civilization, we have enough money and resources to end world hunger and extreme poverty in countries of which are in desperate need of it to be reduced.
At this point of the day the assembly voted on the first 12 clauses of the draft resolution on Extreme Poverty and Hungers which recognised that the number of people suffering from hunger amounted to 1 Billion and unsurprisingly this was supported by all
However The discussion then moved on to more contentious issues. Specifically for clauses 13 and 14, calling for the USA to take back the 25% of agricultural land now used for the production of biofuels, and alternatively use this land for growing food and crops to feed starving and poverty ridden individuals.
On the topic of this discussion, Australia proposes a new idea - that the USA uses this area to produce biofuels still, yet they outsource the fuel to those in need of it, like Australia, of which is currently facing a fuel crisis.
At this point in the discussion, the passionate representative of Bolivia states that she believes that the USA should be using their land to help with the ever-growing issue of world hunger. Shortly after this, South Korea suggests a compromise - that the US should only use 15% of the previous 25% to produce biofuels, and use the excess land freed from that production to produce food for the hungry.
Dramatically Ten votes in favour for YES in the reduction of biofuel land used by the US, and Ten in favour of NO. There are three abstentions. Another vote follows a little while afterward, and the votes shift to 13 in favour of YES, and 9 in favour of NO for the 25% to 15% reduction
The UK introduces a new clause - one of which would “urge developed countries to reduce waste food through programmes”. China argues against this clause, as the surplus food produced would only decrease the value of said food and have a large negative economic impact in not only China, but overseas in other colonies. In a vote for this new clause to be introduced, only three countries vote for no ; China, Russia and the US.
Moving onto the 15th clause, Australia and Bangladesh strongly support the push for India to abandon its space programme until it has eradicated it’s enormous level of poverty, estimated to be a third of its population. The representative of Australia uses his own country as an example ; they have one of the lowest rates of poverty, and they only spend 50 million dollars on their space programme - of which they feel is an adequate amount. This is almost a miniscule amount spent when compared to India, of which spend 1.7 billion dollars on their space programme alone annually. South Korea suggests that the amount of money spent on the Space Programme should be reduced, instead of the entire programme being completely abandoned.
There is a majority vote to keep the clause regarding India’s space programme that they should abandon it
The discussion moves onto the 19th and 20th clause. These clauses urge country's who’re in debt to not purchase anymore military weapons. Countries like Nicaragua argue against the clause, though, as they’re constantly fighting a rebellion within their own country. The representative of the party states “A strong military presence can be required in some countries”. The representative also states that the military presence allows for the security and safety of other important factors within a flourishing country, such as Education.
Sixteen vote YES to keep the clause within the resolution, Six vote NO, and 2 are Abstentions
So in summary the council has moved forward on many of the issues and it is now up to some of our wealthier nations to do more to help the poor.