Letter from the Chairperson
Dear Delegates,
Greetings! My name is Om Agarwal and I feel privileged to work as the Chairperson with enthusiastic Secretariat members and promising delegates in the third iteration of Shishukunj MUN.
I am an 11th grader and wish to pursue a career in Economics. A foodie at heart, I celebrate my undefined love for Chinese, subs and chocolates. With a penchant for debating and reading fictions, I am also fond of playing badminton. I have attended several noted international conclaves and MUNs. The best thing I like about MUNs apart from high levels of socialization is that, it provokes a sense of seriousness and curiosity in a delegate which enables him to ponder and confer about myriad cases like the actual children starving in Africa, refugees being denied rights in Europe and epidemics of deadly diseases spreading across nations rather than plagiarising solutions and statements from a BBC report.
The committee, United Nations Economic Social Commission for the Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), in Shishukunj MUN 2017, has primarily been chosen for two reasons, first-I wanted to try something new and second-I wanted the delegates to try something new by discussing both social and economic aspects of the agendas with a tint of politics all together.
This year UNESCAP convenes to address thematic issues such as Urban Sprawls and Poverty in South Asian Region and International Migration in Asian Pacific Region with Special Emphasis to Pacific Islands. From increasing population, crime rates and nuisance in Dharavi in India to depletion of resources in New Zealand due to emigration, the agendas have been chosen due to their wide scope of debate. With 98 million migrants in the Asia-Pacific region to 4.8 billion people living in urban localities of China, the agendas provide an insight of grave problems faced by neglected countries of the world. As a chairperson, I would want the delegates to reconnoitre and extensively carry out heated debates on such crucial topics with utter seriousness.
In case of any queries or questions, feel free to contact us at unescap@shishukunjmun.com.
Till then, Cheers!
Om Agarwal
Chairperson
UNESCAP
Organ Description
The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) is the regional development arm of the United Nations for the Asia-Pacific region. Comprising of 53 active members and 9 associate members, the ESCAP region is home to two-thirds of the world population ranging from turkey in the east to Kiribati in the east and Russian Federation in the north to New Zealand in the south. Established in 1947 with head quarters in Bangkok, UNESCAP has been an instrumental UN organ is assisting its member states by initiating programs aiming at reducing poverty, increasing trade and investment and drawing coherent macroeconomic and microeconomic policies. What makes UNESCAP different from other UN bodies is that it gives stronger participation to the smaller and often left out voices of the region, the least developed countries and the small island States.
Agenda One: Urban Sprawls and Poverty in South Asian Region
The world population clock as of this moment shows the world population to be 7.4 billion with more than 60% as of now living in cities or urbanized localities, giving rise to a pertinent issue of a sudden population bubble growth in major cities that has affected living standards which, in turn has given rise to several socio-economic issues that are a potential threat to nations and humanity as a whole. South Asian states have utterly faced and are facing the problem of urban sprawls. With 16.6 mt of fossil fuel emission, China is one of the most polluted and highly populated economies in the world with 54% of its population living in urban centres. Dharavi in India is Asia’s largest urban sprawl followed by Bangkok in Thailand. Therefore the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific must, with collaborative effort tackle this issue with efficiency in order to justify its 2030 Sustainable Developmental Goals.
Agenda Two: International Migration in Asian Pacific Region with Special Emphasis to Pacific Islands
In 2015, there were over 60 million migrants in countries of the ESCAP region, and over 98 million migrants from ESCAP countries living outside their countries of birth, 40 per cent of all migrants in the world. These figures include labour migrants, refugees, and students engaging in temporary or permanent migration, both within the region and beyond. Pacific islands face a bigger threat. Pacific islands include Australia, New Zealand, Tonga, Fiji, Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, Hawaii and 12 more. Much migration in this region is irregular, resulting in migrants being vulnerable to abuse of their rights and exploitation. This not only harms migrants themselves, but all members of society. Recognizing these challenges, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development calls for member States to “facilitate orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration and mobility of people, including through the implementation of planned and well-managed migration policies”. To meet this target, it is essential that UNESCAP member states work to ensure that the laws, regulations and procedures governing migration respect the rights of migrants and meet labour market needs efficiently, while building their capacity to implement these reforms.