UNDP

UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME

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UNited NatioNs developMeNt prograMMe 1

UNited NatioNs developMeNt prograMMe

Yale Model United Nations KoreaMay 17 - 19, 2013


Table of Contents

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History of the Committee 3

Topic I: Child Soldiers

History 5

Changes in the Conflict 7

Monitoring and Reporting 8

Legal Developments 9

Current Situation 12

Questions to Consider 26

Suggestions for Further Reading 27

Topic II: Middle Eastern Poverty and Its Effects

History 29

Current Situation 36

Bloc Positions 47

Questions to Consider 49

Suggestions for Further Research 50

Glossary 52

Role of the Committee 54

Structure of the Committee 56

Notes 58

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) works to provide the intelligence and resources necessary to further human development. Working with people across the world, its mis-sion is to improve the universal quality of life. With 177 participating coun-tries, the UNDP helps to build nations that will flourish and withstand crisis. By providing expert advice, training and support, it seeks to protect human rights and empower the most vulnera-ble. The UNDP was founded on Novem-ber 22, 1965 by the United Nations (UN) to avoid the duplication of two similar committees: the United Na-tions Expanded Program of Technical Assistance (EPTA), which helped the economic and political aspects of un-derdeveloped countries, and the United Nations Special Fund, which enlarged the scope of UN technical assistance. The EPTA had been one of the first international aid programs funded by member states and was prompted by the United States in 1949. The separate Special Fund had been created in 1958 to establish a base support for encour-aging economic assistance to develop-ing states. Their union helped create a


History of the Committee

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powerhouse for an international de-velopment network. Partnership is an integral com-ponent of the UNDP and as a result there exists a vast range of support for both the UNDP itself and the programs that it advocates. Since its creation, the UNDP has formed alli-ances with a vast array of other com-mittees to maximize aid, including International Financial Institutions (IFIs) such as the World Band and Asian Development Bank, and civil society organizations that include so-cial movements and volunteer orga-nizations. The UNDP does not work exclusively with large organizations such as UNICEF; it also integrates itself into regional and local networks such as the LEDA Program (Local Economic Development Agency). A main function of the UNDP is to consolidate hundreds of programs un-der its structure. It is part of the Task Force on Children and Armed Con-flict (administered by the UN) and works with the Department of Peace-keeping Operations, the Department of Political Affairs, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Labor


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organizations, and more. To further improve efficiency, the UN system reconstructs programs to create multi-partner trust funds named Joint Programs and Multi-Donor Trust Funds . With so many complementary organizations, effective collaboration depends on clarifying the division of labor on issues that cut across the responsibilities of multiple actors both within and outside of the UN system. As the world has changed, so too has the UNDP. Modern tech-nology has allowed for improved data collection and assessment. The UNDP can now create more intricate and focused goals due largely to the fulfillment of previously set rough aims. More aid camps, however, be-come larger targets for rebels. Modern technology and other developments in weaponry might also be used for violence. The UNDP must work to adapt to the ever-changing strategies of military commanders. The UNDP offers more than economic support and expert advice; it also holds enough influence to send military personnel to a region. In 1948 the Security Council first authorized the deployment of UN military ob-servers to the Middle East to monitor the Armistice Agreement between Israel and its Arab neighbors.

The United Nations Development Programme

The UN police officers have been deployed for peace operations since the 1960s.


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Military personnel provide security and stability to peace missions, work-ing alongside UN Police and civilians to protect personnel and property, maintain close cooperation with other military entities in the mission area and work to promote stability and security. The military personnel can be called upon to monitor disputed bor-ders, provide security across conflict zones, protect civilians, assist in-coun-try military personnel with training and support, and monitor peace pro-cesses in post-conflict areas. These troops are active for re-actionary purposes; the UN Security Council must pass a resolution ex-plaining how many military personnel are required before the UN Headquar-ters will liaise with Member States to identify troops to be deployed. As a result of this, troops frequently arrive much after conflict has already broken out.

Topic I: Child Soldiers

For as long as there have been wars, there have been child soldiers. As spies and even as fully armed snipers, chil-dren fill countless military roles across history and cultures. Today children are most commonly recruited with-in countries ravaged by civil war. A global emphasis on child rights has prompted new international legisla-tion with the goal of protecting the under-aged against military recruit-ment. Protecting these children from war is not only a moral imperative, but also a legal responsibility and a question of international peace and security. As established by the Paris Prin-ciples, the international definition of a child associated with an armed force or armed group (child soldier) is any person below 18 years of age who is, or who has been, recruited or used by an armed force or armed group in any capacity. It is important to distinguish that a child soldier is not just someone who has partaken directly in hostil-ities. Children are highly trainable, small and versatile. Not only are they used for direct combat; they can also

Topic History


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Child soldiers fight in almost every region of the world. As of 2003 it has been estimated that child soldiers par-ticipate in about three quarters of all ongoing conflicts in the world. Africa is home to some of the most critical case of child recruitment due to wide-spread poverty and political turmoil. Most of the children that participate in armed conflict are unlawfully recruit-ed, either by force or at an age below that which is permitted by interna-tional standards. The majority of child soldiers serve in the ranks of non-state armed groups. Additionally, countries with irregular political groups char-acterized by unclear, shifting alliances make it difficult to pinpoint the pre-cise location of child camps.

be used as couriers, spies, guards, suicide bombers, human shields and performers of domestic duties. All too often girls and boys are exploited as sexual slaves and as political pawns. International standards do not explicitly prohibit the voluntary re-cruitment of 16 and 17 year olds by armed groups. According to Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions, chil-dren over the age of fifteen who have volunteered can be used as spotters, observers and message carriers. Today, however, almost two-thirds of states recognize that banning under 15-year-olds from military ranks is necessary to protect children from the risk of involvement in armed conflict and to ensure their well-being.

UNICEF, Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, Child Soldiers Global Report 2008; Human Rights Watch, Council on Foreign Relations


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Military commanders strategically conceal children from observers and keep their soldiers in dangerous, inac-cessible zones. Sadly, criminal groups frequently will exploit children, and the line between military and political use is oftentimes blurred.

initiatives to better control arms that en-able such conflict. As weapons become smaller, there has been an increase over the years in child suicide bombers and child victim bombers, who are not even aware that they are carrying explosives. Frequently children are not aware of the consequences of the acts they are insti-gated to commit, leading in their own death as well as the killing of civilians.

Changes in the ConflictThough most of the principal causes for the use of children in war have not changed (see below “Under-lying Factors”), the Machel report (UNICEF, 2009) and other UN reports note that the character of armed conflict is changing. Children are more vulnerable due to new war tactics, the absence of clear battle-fields, the increasing number and di-versification of parties to conflict that add to the complexity of conflicts, and the deliberate targeting of tradi-tional safe havens such as schools and hospitals. Today’s small arms are almost “child friendly.” Light automatic weapons entering countries illegally have are in demand among military groups using child soldiers. These weapons are cheap and light, making them easier for children to wield. Any strategy to counter the recruit-ment of children must include

Humanitarian aid sites are also under attack. A marked characteristic of this strategized conflict change is deliberate attacks against education infrastructures and the targeting of both school children and teachers. There have been reports made of shootings and suicide bombing


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In order to advance the goal of pro-tecting children during armed conflict and ending the impunity of perpetra-tors, the UN Security Council identi-fies six categories of violations, the “six grave violations”:

on school premises, as well as the use of acid and gas attacks on stu-dents on their way to school. When school buildings fall into the wrong hands they become a prime recruiting ground for children and are used as military bases that become strategic targets. As more children are recog-nized to be involved in armed conflict, wary states are increasingly arresting and detaining them. Children can be threats to national security because they have allegedly participated in hostilities, voluntary or not. Though parties may detain a child for valid security or military purposes, such detention must be in accordance with the minimum standards outlined in the Geneva Conventions. The condi-tions in which children are detained are usually poor by international standards. The unlawful confinement of children is a grave breach of the Ge-neva Conventions and under the ICC Rome Statute might constitute a war crime. The 4th Geneva Convention elaborates on the need for a child’s education to continue in detention.

Monitoring and Reporting

1. Killing or maiming of children2. Recruitment of use of children as soldiers3. Sexual violence against children4. Attacks against schools or hospi-tals5. Denial of humanitarian access for children6. Abduction of children

The monitoring and reporting mech-anism (MRM) on these heinous violations serves to provide system-atic gathering of accurate, timely and objective information. At first only parties that recruit and use children were included in the annexes of the annual report; today the Security Council also lists armed forces and groups who commit violations. All too often each instance of a violation


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of a category is accompanied by other subsequent violations. The magnitude of the violation of abduction is com-pounded by the ensuing consequences in a conflict zone, including trafficking and enslavement. Recent conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the former Yugoslavia demon-strate that child-abduction often leads to other grave violations of children’s rights, such as recruitment into armed forces and rape and sexual violence. The UN reports on these violations trigger action by the Security Council and other actors.

Over the years, an international legal and policy framework has been imple-mented to protect children in armed conflict. The Four Geneva Conventions (1949) and the Additional Protocols (1977) established laws of armed con-flict. The 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child clarifies the rights of chil-dren in wartime, elucidating the right to protection against exploitation and vio-lence, protection against torture, family reunification. Starting in 1999, the UN Security Council itself has passed resolu-tions on children and armed conflict. The Rome Statute of the Interna-tional Criminal Court (ICC) as of 1998 provides for the prosecution and pun-ishment of militants who have recruited children under the age of 15 for hostili-ties. The United Nations adopted an Op-tional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict in 2000. More than 110 countries have ratified this protocol, which prohibits the forced recruitment of children under the age of 18 and their use in hostilities. Addition-ally, African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, established in 1999, prohibits the recruitment or direct par-ticipation in hostilities or internal strife of anyone under the age of 18.

Legal DevelopmentsThe UNDP does not serve to “punish” the perpetrators of child soldiers, but rather looks to end the use child sol-diers through development in conflict regions. The legal network gives the committee both direction and purpose.

Wilmot, 16, a boy delegate from Liberia, tes-tifies on the impact of war on children, at a special meeting of the Security Council, New York, 2002. © UN ICEF /Markisz


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The UN took command of the Dar-fur peacekeeping operation from the African Union in 2007 and serves as a model for rehabilitation study. Large refugee influxes from neighboring Ethiopia and Chad have put strains on an already pressured rehabilitation structure. When resources are scare, children are those who frequently are left in the worst of conditions. Other obstructions to humanitarian assis-tance included continued conflict, poor transport infrastructure, and lack of government support. The UNDP established the Sudan Post-Conflict Communi-ty-Based Recovery and Rehabilitation Programme (RRP) in 2005. The RRP works on behalf of the Government of National Unity and the Govern-ment of Southern Sudan with funding from the European Commission and Government of Norway. A total of 44 NGOs are working across 10 locations to provide capacity building, improve livelihoods and provide basic services. The RRP works to build the capac-ity of local government authorities (LGAs) through administrative and financial training, building and equip-ping administration offices, organizing village development committees and

Graca Machel’s report on the “Impact of Armed Conflict on Children” in 1996 moved the UN General Assembly to recommend the appointment of a Spe-cial Representative on the impact of armed conflict on children. This rep-resentative works with Resident Coor-dinators and UNICEF representatives to systematically elicit commitments form all leaders of parties in conflict. Since the report, solid international child protection standards have been made, the General Assembly and the Security Council have been actively involved in making the issue a top pri-ority, and strategies to protect war-af-fected children have been enhanced. Sudan has been the focus of many recent UNDP rehabilitation pro-grams. For most of the 20th century the country was involved in two civil wars. The second war, paired with a famine, left over four million people displaced and more than two mil-lion deaths over two decades. Former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Pow-ell declared that genocide had been committed in the Sudanese region of Darfur. After a referendum on inde-pendence for Southern Sudan, the state became independent on July 9, 2011.


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directly including LGAs in the man-agement of RRP activities. The skills that children are taught give them a future, and those skills taught to their parents allow them to support their family. Vocational centers have been created to train people in bicycle re-pair, tailoring, carpentry and welding. Food security is established through training activities and improving market structures and access routes. In terms of disease-prevention, hygiene education, latrine construction and water services have been implement-ed. Additionally, over 81 grants have been administered to micro-entrepre-neurs to ease their access to startup funds. Approximately 800,000 benefi-ciaries have been targeted. Although the war has ended officially, work is just beginning to stabilize the area and its people. Though the UNDP has put an enormous about of time and effort into developing Sudan, there is still much left to do. If the state is left to decay and conflict again breaks out, children will be among the first re-cruits once more. Despite the enormous progress achieved by the UNDP in Sudan, past international actions has been less successful in reducing the incidenceof child soldiers worldwide.

Although the Rome Statute has intro-duced strict regulations on prosecution of groups involved with child soldiers, only one conviction has been made since its introduction. Several international agreements have been signed condemn-ing the utilization of child soldiers. Agreements such as Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, and the UN Security Council Resolution 1612, which was passed in 2005 and ratified by all fifteen members of the Security Council at the time, have brought together the inter-national community against this issue but have achieved very little in terms of reducing the actual number of children recruited into armed groups, as they often fail to provide concrete solutions to the problem and rely mainly on the strategy of “naming and shaming.”

Shagarab Camp school. 6,000 of a total of 15,000 children in eastern Sudan’s 12 camps do not have education opportunities. Maram Mazen. /IRI N


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Political unrest as a result of ethnic, tribal and religious discrimination motivates children to seek revenge or to honor their families by ‘play-ing their part’ in the defense of their community. At times even the idea of martyrdom and a heroic death attracts young people. For those who have seen family members killed, the army can be a means of revenge. Children also identify with social causes, religious expression and the pursuit of national liberation. Those who have not yet developed a concept of death are efficient fighters, easily indoctrinated. Other minority groups frequently are not aware that they are being recruited. Children orphaned by AIDS and war have no authority figure to turn to. A lack of birth registration makes it easy for commanders to fake the age of their militants. Easily intim-idated and physically disadvantaged,

Upwards of 300,000 children currently are participating in armed conflict due to kidnapping, trickery, poverty and other political issues. It is the work of the UNDP to identify these catalysts and find solutions to stop the cause of the recruitment of child soldiers. There are different kinds of child soldiers. The idea of children being forced into service after being abducted and beaten into submission is the archetype of child soldiering. A lack of work and educational oppor-tunities leave few options for children. Widespread poverty motivates an increasing number of children to turn to the armed forces as a source of food and shelter. Children who ‘volunteer’ for armed service most likely have done so out of necessity. Children of-ten move from one horrible condition to another, fleeing poverty only to find more abuse.

Current Situation


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children are left with no choice but to follow their commanders away from their homes, families, school and means of support. In the eyes of military com-manders, children are a more eco-nomically efficient alternative to adult combatants as they are easily recruit-ed, easily trained, and easily disposed of. The proliferation of small arms and light weapons make children easily exploitable. An issue to consider is that child soldiers recruited in a conflict area are often under the control of paramilitary groups which either fight against or do not recognize the formal government of the country they oper-ate in. This brings about questions of targeted punishment. In October 2012, President of the United States Barack Obama decided to waive penalties for sever-al countries known to be using child soldiers, citing that countries which are immersed in armed conflict and poverty, should be helped rather than punished in order to tackle the prob-lem from a developmental perspec-tive. As with any operation involving rebel groups, issues of possible violent engagement, poverty and ethnic iden-tity arise.

Education and Health Buildings as TargetsMilitants have developed dangerous strategies to recruit child soldiers: attacking hospitals and schools, two of the cornerstones to UNDP aid. In countries such as Syria, where both government forces and non-state groups frequently use schools as mili-tary bases due to their infrastructure, this practice has become an important source of new child recruits. Accord-ing to the secretary-general’s report, schools are regularly raided and used as military staging grounds and “cen-ters for torture.” It says that in the case of Syria, not only have children been arrested and killed as an indirect or direct effect of military operations, but have also been forcibly taken out of classrooms to be brainwashed and recruited. Similar situations can be seen in countries such as Yemen and Thailand, and pose a very important threat to the ideals of the UNDP. Direct physical damage to these institutions causes forced closure or disrupted functioning. As an organi-zation focused on development, one of the main action points of the UNDP is to improve access to education, as it not only gives children the necessary


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Some armed groups are opposed to secular and girls’ education and there-fore attempt to hamper access to their education. Fearful of conflict, many chil-dren find it too risky to go to school and others are denied timely access to hospitals because of checkpoints and roadblocks. The use of schools as recruitment grounds and polling sta-tions turns the purpose of their estab-lishment upside-down. Guidelines demand that a party must safeguard schools and hospitals from attack, however the exception to this is when the buildings are military targets. When this occurs, there is little that can be done. When there is doubt whether a school or hospital is a military or civilian object, humani-tarian law mandates that the working presumption must be that a building is a civilian object. Education serves not only to teach children facts but also serves as an important protection tool and a source of psychosocial support. With-out access to education, the develop-ment and future potential of children are undermined. Various international institu-tions have adopted tactics to ensure that education, the cornerstone of development in conflict-laden areas,

skills and capacities to become con-tributing adults, but also because education has proven to be a valuable tool in preventing children from being easily manipulated by outside groups. Thus, these attacks are in principle contraventions of well-established in-ternational humanitarian law. A child’s right to education and health-care are of paramount importance. The 4th Geneva Convention prohibits the tar-geting of civilian objects, and schools and hospitals are essential to children. Attacks on these institutions have been added as triggers for the Secu-rity-General’s list of shame. Militants can threaten children, teachers and medical operators if they are suspected to support another party.


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remains unhampered by child sol-dier-recruiting militant groups. Since 2004, the Security Council has ad-opted several resolutions stating that it will consider targeted sanctions, including arms embargoes, against those responsible for grave violations against children. It has imposed travel bans and asset freezes for the use of child soldiers on violators from the Congo and Cote d’Ivoire. It considers grave violations against children to include killing and maiming, recruit-ment and use of child soldiers, attacks on schools and hospitals, and denial of humanitarian access. However, most of the international actions have been reactionary. Although some state governments have been involved in the attack of education, most of the perpetrators are armed non-states groups, an aspect that makes any type of international law difficult to en-force. Protection of potential attack areas has also been considered, but militant groups are often well armed, and while the Security Council Reso-lution 1612, which states that recog-nizing that the protection of children affected by armed conflict should be an integral aspect of the UN’s peace-keeping operations, UN troops are not allowed to enter a country in absence of a ceasefire. Given these restraints,

the UNDP needs to adopt an ap-proach that will strengthen local infrastructure so as to make schools and other development facilities less accessible to armed troops.

Increased Danger: Unexploded OrdinancesLandmines, cluster munitions and unexploded ordinances are particu-larly dangerous to children who might think that they are toys or strange objects to be investigated. Kurdish children in northern Iraq have used round mines as wheels for toy trucks. An average of 20% of children injured by mines in Cambodia die from their injuries. Mine injuries make a life miserable; because children’s bones grow faster than the surrounding tis-sue, wounds may require amputation. Today at least 68 countries are home to over 110 million landmines. Africa contains the most, with over 37 mil-lion mines over at least 19 countries. In 2010, the Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor reported 4, 191 new casualties from mines, victim-ac-tivated improvised explosive devises, cluster munitions and other explosive remnants of wars in 60 States. Of the 50,000-100,000 mines that have been laid in Rwanda since May 1995, chil-dren have made up approximately half


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Rehabilitation programs must be tailored to fit the different cultures and necessities of children. Efficacious rehabilitation activities strengthen the coping skills for those with anticipat-ed trauma and grief. Self-regulation teaching and security (versus survival) seeking behavior encourage children to grow. Children with a strong sense of social responsibility are less likely to join militant groups. Long-term inte-gration activities and self-sufficiency programs must include acceptance and forgiveness, traditional cleansing rituals and apprenticeships to reinte-grate all aspects of the child that have been damaged and to give them the skills to move on. It is important to remember that without a safe environ-ment to eventually work in, the skills that children learn are useless. There-fore development must also take place outside of rehabilitation programs themselves. The Convention of the Rights of the Child’s Optional Protocol on Armed Conflict insists that programs be offered to provide psychological re-covery and social reintegration for all children involved in hostilities during the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration process.

of the victims. Militant groups, viewing their child soldiers as disposable, often use them as mine-clearing tools as they can easily fit through barbed wire and enter restricted zones. They are also used to cross minefields in hopes that their light bodies will not activate the mines, however this is not always the case. In Iran, child soldiers entrusted with this task wrap their bodies in blankets so that their limbs will stay together after the explosion. Howev-er, children might not be able to read warning signs or recognize the risk of latent weaponry, and they often do not know the danger of their actions. Although there has been wide-spread action in clearing old land-mines, as that lead by former child soldier for the Khmer Rouge Aki Ra who is now working with the UN and providing villages with mine-risk education and deactivation training, efforts to clear minefields require advanced technology and investment. The UNDP has often used the sup-port of contributing nations as well as NGOs, but often these areas are still controlled by violent groups, making the implementation of demining tech-niques very difficult.

Rehabilitation


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Girls associated with military groups have been widely excluded from Dis-armament, Demobilization and Rein-tegration (DDR) programs. When the national DDR program in the Dem-ocratic Republic of the Congo ended, only 15 percent of the total number of girls estimated to have been in-volved in the conflict were officially demobilized. When a similar program in Liberia ended in 2004, only 3,000 girls were officially demobilized; an-other 8,000 did not participate in the program. Girls can be stigmatized by their home communities when they return if they have been impregnated, even by rape. With long-term invest-ment strategies being rare, the child of young women who have been raped are often left in a situation worse than that of their mothers.

Though the programs provide some of the best options for the recovery of war-affected children, the long-term financial and political support neces-sary to successfully reintegrate former child soldiers frequently fails. Even within the DDR programs, in some cases provisions are not made for children. In the official DDR program following armed conflict in 2002-03 in the Central African Republic, only 26 of the 7, 500 combatants that received treatment were children. Restrictive criteria for accessing a past govern-ment-run DDR program in Colom-bia excluded most children. In other countries no such arrangements exist to facilitate the release of children from armed groups or to assist them in their reintegration. Local authorities need to take action with both short-term and long-term goals in mind. Preventative mea-sures can be made to keep children safe, including: discouraging children from going out alone in unsafe set-tings, supplying whistles to children in dangerous areas, creating community watch groups, providing locks and adequate lighting in unsafe areas, and the placement of unaccompanied/sep-arated children in structured, super-vised living and school settings, etc.

ReintegrationThe self-demobilization of child sol-diers complicates the situation. Al-though some children are demobilized through official DDR programs, many more child soldiers are self-demobi-lized. A fear of stigmatization and lack of knowledge about the existence and nature of DDR programs prevents children from registering for them.


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The UNDP recognizes that it must also help target the root cause of con-flict and not take a merely reactionary approach. As a result of this, it works to educate villages about how to safe-guard children and strengthen com-munities. Outside forces are especially useful at maintaining peace missions. There is a fine line, however, between peaceful protection measures and actual combat, i.e. taking sides and acting with violence. With an international legal rights system in place, the Interna-tional Criminal Court (ICC) can now prosecute and punish the militants who use children for military purpos-es. While the UNDP does not directly

Children need physical rehabilitation, education, and psycho-social support. The restoration of their rights is essen-tial to a full recovery, along with an element of reparation to address their loss of childhood, family, education, and livelihood. should be implemented in a case-by-case basis. However, the UNDP should make sure that these solutions are not paternalistic and tackle not only the short-term health and psychological effects, but also the long-term social effects of the prob-lem. Although education and reinte-gration programs are necessary, tactics should also aim at establishing a long-term supportive system without in-fringing on the freedom of the people.

Justice Initiatives

Children Play at Sosmaqala IDP Camp in Afghanistan, 30 August 2009.UN Photo/Eric Kanalstein


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prosecute the perpetrators of interna-tional human rights laws, it plays in important role in collecting data about present and past situations which is used in courts. The UNDP also must deal with the current problems in a country; whether or not the main per-petrator has been indicted or not. Thomas Lubanga Dyilo was the first man to be declared guilty of conscripting and enlisting children under the age of 15. Sanctions issued by the UN Security Council include asset freezes and travel bans in con-flicts such as those in Cote d’Ivoire, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Security General re-ports on children and armed conflict and the ‘Most Persistent Violators’ lists work to name and shame perpetra-tors. These reports serve to motivate action plans with the UN to end viola-tions against children. With such high costs of using children soldiers, it is becoming less cost effective and more dangerous to use children for military purposes. Three countries in particular- Uganda, Chad and Myanmar- stand out as case studies that represent the individual problems that must be addressed by DDR programs. Ugan-da currently faces the abduction and recruitment of child soldiers. In this

instance the main source of the re-cruitment must be addressed in ad-dition to rehabilitation. Despite the fact that the war in Chad has ended, recruitment continues. The same conditions that facilitated the use of child soldiers in the past still persist, and widespread recruitment might reoccur. Myanmar, despite promising to abide by international standards, continues to recruit and use child sol-diers. This blatant violation of interna-tional law highlights one of the great-est issues in ending child recruitment: actual ramifications for infringements on the rights of children.

UgandaUganda contains 12 ethnic groups and since the country’s indepen-dence in 1962, violence has contin-ued between them. Only 131 hos-pitals serve the nearly 36 million people of Uganda. Fear of attack and the dangers of the journey prevent many families from travel-ing to medical clinics. Children are dying of treatable diseases such as malaria, which accounts for almost a quarter of deaths among children less than five years of age. UNICEF has launched an initiative named mTrac, which allows medical


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travelling. Within the LRA, abuse and long lasting trauma haunt children. Many have sustained serious injuries while fighting and have been forced to loot and destroy civilian property. Al-most all of the children who complete tests are found to have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The ICC issued indictments in 2005 against the LRA leader Joseph Kony and four other commanders for war crimes, including the enlistment of children, in accordance with the Rome Statute. Despite the indictment and press, Kony still operates his army. Controversially, the Uganda People’s Defense Force, whose primary focus is to combat the LRA, has recruited chil-dren as young as 13. They have raided LRA bases across the border in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Con-go, where they have abducted children themselves. See “Game Changer” be-low for more current developments. Children who have been inter-nationally displaced are uprooted at a time when their lives need the most stability. As families flee from con-flict, they are exposed to threats by attacks, shelling and landmines, and must walk for days with limited access to ware and food. Under these condi-tions children become acutely under-nourished and prone to illness.

officials to text details of drug supplies and disease outbreaks. Though this in-novation seems so modern, it is actu-ally low tech and the cost is negligible. Today over a third of Ugandans have mobile phones, which are used to relay information. There must be more ways to utilize this technology. Recently popularized by the “KONY” campaign, the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), led by Joseph Kony since 1988, has abducted more than 30,000 children as soldiers since its initiation. Because many children are abducted from villages, the es-timates are unclear. Approximately 90% of soldiers in the LRA recruit are children, most under the age of 13. Kony seeks children between the ages of 8 and 14 because they are the most moldable and big enough to carry guns but small enough to sneak into schools and steal children. Children are threatened with death if they leave the army and are desensitized through violent indoctrination. Fearful of being abducted by Kony, thousands of children in Ugan-da leave their villages to sleep in towns at night in bus parks under the veran-das. The children voluntarily submit themselves to crowded and unsanitary conditions and are often putting them-selves in just as much danger by


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Children who go to school can rarely see their families if they must leave early in the evening to find some-where to sleep at night.

As relations between Chad and Sudan have improved (the establishment of a joint border force in 2010), there has been a positive impact on the security and the protection of children. Ad-ditionally, Chad has signed the Paris Principles, an international agreement to stop the recruitment of children in combatant and non-combatant roles. These principles require under-age recruits to enter a UNICEF-sponsored rehabilitation process when children from Chadian rebel groups are cap-tured, or when the groups sign peace deals with the government. Authori-ties must also pay for each rebel fight-er who demobilizes. At interim care centers, demobilized youths receive psychological counseling and learn reintegration skills. After having been trained to kill, it is very difficult for children to overcome the trauma in their past. For those brought up with violence, it is difficult for them to put down their weapons and become civil-ians. Additionally, many children have yet to be rehabilitated. The problems that Chad has in the wake of violence make for an excellent case study. Though there are rehabilitation efforts, many challenges lie ahead. Another concern is the instability of the region; if the country were to break out into war again, little would stop the

During the Chad-Sudan proxy war (2005-2010), the Chadian government supported Sudanese armed groups recruiting children on its territory. Although the Chadian government claims it is committed to stopping underage recruitment, the conditions that facilitated recruitment during the original conflict are unchanged. Although tensions have reduced and some children have left their troops, there have been continued incidents of the rape and abuse of children by members of the armed forces. Mines and other explosive remnants of war continue to expose children to danger. Additionally, attacks on humanitarian workers in eastern Chad, have restrict-ed access to education and health care.

Chad. Gabriel Galwak/IRIN

Chad


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They planned for vocational training, public-awareness raising, punishment of recruiters, discharging soldiers under the age of 18, and co-operation with international agencies. Although the SPDC has stated that it is against their policy to recruit soldiers under the age of 18, boys are still forcibly recruited to increase troop levels. A system of incentives and punishments were set up to en-courage recruiters to fill their quotas. False age reports have complicated the system. Many orphans are passed for adults and others are reportedly used in non-combat activities. Once deployed, children are at risk of attack, malnutrition and disease, on top of the horrors such as the destruction of villages that they must witness. The number of released children is not know and not possible to verify, as the SPDC provided little information about punishments for recruiters, and the rehabilitation program was not or-ganized formally. Reports have contin-ued about the continued use of child soldiers in Myanmar. Children report-edly have fled to Thailand, joining the Burmese migrant worker community, and others have fled to refugee camps. This is an example of a state on one front trying to raise itself to interna-tional standards, while secretly violat-ing them.

recruitment of child soldiers once more.

MyanmarConflicting parties on almost all sides of the current conflict in Myanmar make use of children for military purposes. From 35 to 45 percent of the soldiers in the Tatmadaw Kyi army and in armed political groups in Myanmar are children. The children are frequently abducted and subject to brutal treatment in training camps before forced combat. The state of Myanmar was for a time ruled by the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) in the absence of a constitu-tion (2007) and during a time of great political unrest. Though ceasefire agreements have been made between the SPDC and a number of ethnic-mi-nority based groups, the ceasefire groups were not formally demobilized and have retained some of their pow-er. Sporadic fighting has continued and villages are still being attacked, with many civilians being tortured and put into forced labor. In 2006 at a UN Security Coun-cil meeting the Myanmar government stated that they had drawn up an action plan to protect children’s rights and to coordinate with UNICEF.


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It is difficult to understand how much aid China gives to aid programs in Africa because China has a different definition of foreign aid. According to the Chinese, building roads and infra-structure benefits the people. Critics claim that China merely wants to get natural resources and does not enter negotiations with a foreign aid mis-sion or regularized funding schedule. The Chinese-funded programs are also not clearly documented. Jacob Zuma, the president of South Africa, has explained that he preferred China’s approach to that of Europe. In his opinion, China treats the African nations as equals and that the agreements are entered into for mutual gain.

Harmful Aid Dambisa Moyo, a Zambian economist with training at Harvard, Oxford and Goldman Sachs, explains that foreign aid has been “an unmit-igated political, economic and hu-manitarian disaster.” Moyo explains that charity-based aid cannot provide long-term sustainable development for Africa. She also explains that most foreign government aid has been pocketed by corrupt politicians. Moyo proposes trade, foreign investments and microfinance opportunites as means for a better future for Africans.

Bloc PositionsTraditionally the West stands at the forefront of aid programs across the world. A large number of advocacy groups come from the West and mil-lions of westerners are involved in projects to support children suffering across the globe. The entire world, however, is not western. Countries with different political and culture backgrounds might view aid different-ly, and the western viewpoint is not the only solution.

Aid from China In the past decade China has become more involved in African development, especially with grass-roots projects and aid programs in African nations with abundant ener-gy and mineral resources. Sudan and Angola hold the cheap oil that China seeks, and Zambia and the Democrat-ic Republic of Congo contain copper mines. The projects in Africa that Chi-na focuses on mostly benefit China’s extractive industries and not the Afri-can people, many critics claim. With infrastructure built by Chinese labor, some complain that aid is offered without conditioning it on human rights performance.


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Invisible Children A group of three young inves-tigators created an organization en-titled “Invisible Children” to bring a permanent end to LRA atrocities after travelling to Uganda in 2003 . This organization revolutionized the idea of international awareness. The founders almost resembled a tech-start up: they were young and fun, and their video about Kony and the LRA went viral. They also broke established traditional advocacy-group rules of conduct by disregarding principles of neutrality and noninterference. Rather than fo-cusing exclusively on the need for sup-plies in the war-torn areas, they called to attention the political cause of the conflict. According to the former CEO of Invisible Children, the traditional aid-worker stance is merely a way of “managing pain,” not fixing it. There-fore, the organization views military

action as necessary. There is an ob-vious quandary when it comes to stopping war with war. On one hand, violence begets violence. The other viewpoint is that is useless to contin-ue to “pull people out of the river” instead of going upstream to find out who is pushing them in and stop them. The campaign has been criticized for oversimplifying and sensationaliz-ing the issue, as well as acting with a “savior complex.” Manhunts are also very expensive, and using up limit-ed resources to target only one man might not be the best solution. Never-theless, the impact that the group has had on raising a massive amount of awareness and inspiring direct action is undeniable. Invisible children made the LRA one of the most discussed foreign issues for American students, invigorating the people and causing ramifications worldwide.


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Awareness, support, laws and recom-mendations are useless unless real ac-tion is taken. More care must be taken to make countries aware of the actual legal ramifications of violations of the rights of children. Local standards must be raised to say that the abuse of children as a part of war is unac-ceptable. Too often the worst violators against children during armed conflict do not receive punishment. Without the threat of actual punishment, there is no deterrent for child recruitment. Children surrounding military opera-tions are subject to deprivation, ex-ploitation, abuse and neglect. The full range of children’s rights- economic, social, cultural, political and civ-il- must be protected, respected, and promoted.


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Keep in mind these questions:

• With increasing global awareness and tighter international laws, today there are fewer conflicts and fewer child soldiers. However, if the number of international conflicts were to rise again, it is feared that the problem of child soldiers would rapidly exacerbate. Child soldiers extend throughout Africa. What kinds of preven-tative measures ought to be taken by the UNDP to create an environment that will not recruit child soldiers? How can the UNDP deal with the changing front of the war against recruitment and retention?

• Despite widespread awareness of the existence of child armies, how can the UNDP incite global action? Is awareness enough? With so many action programs, how can the UNDP work to unite everyone towards their common goal? What happens when different support groups have different plans?

• To what extent should the UNDP work to stop the recruitment and rehabilitation of child soldiers? How much should they work with individual nations and the international community? How ought the UNDP use individual awareness groups (UNICEF, Child Soldiers International) to facilitate their efforts?

• What can be done for the thousands of children who have not been formally dis-charged from the army

• How can children be encouraged to enter rehabilitation programs? How can the children who have fled the army be relocated?

• Though the United Nations has created a legal framework to protect children from armed conflicts, in actuality implementation has been slow. International human rights treaties typically bind states and have no influence over armed rebel groups. How can the UNDP work to combat this problem? Additionally, how can countries be encouraged to honor the treaties that they have committed themselves to?

Questions to Consider


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• UNDP working papers http://childrenandarmedconflict.un.org/publications/

• UNICEF, Patterns in conflict: Civilians are now the target http://www.unicef.org/graca/

• Secretary-General’s 11th Annual Report on Children and Armed Conflict http://www.essex.ac.uk/armedcon/story_id/10th%20report%20CAC.pdf

• UN Security Council Resolution 1612 and Beyond: Strengthening Protection for Children and Armed Conflict http://watchlist.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/UN-Security-Coun-cil-Resolution-1612-and-Beyond-PolicyPaper_May09.pdf

• From Outrage to Action: Up in Arms Conference http://www.peacebuild.ca/documents/From-Outrage-to-Action.pdf

• Child Soldiers Global Report http://www.childsoldiersglobalreport.org/

• Human Rights Watch http://www.hrw.org/topic/childrens-rights/child-soldiers

Suggestions for Further Reading


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• Amnesty International http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/issues/children-s-rights/child-soldiers

• NPR Report – Thomas Lobanga http://www.npr.org/2012/03/15/148678006/icc-convicts-rebel-for-recruiting-child-soldiers

• Youth Advocate Program International – Child Soldier Rehabilitation http://www.yapi.org/rpchildsoldierrehab.pdf

• UN report on Child Soldier Use http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/childsoldiers.pdf


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Over the last three decades, there has been tremendous growth in various human development indicators in the Middle East. Public health and education have seen substantial im-provement; however, poverty and lack of development remains one of the most pressing issues in the region - a situation that has affected the political scene of the region in recent years, especially in the three areas that this committee will discuss: illicit drug production and trade, human traffick-ing and trade of small arms. The economic situation in the Middle East before 1980 was very un-stable. By that time, the Middle East-ern economy had already seen vari-ous ups and downs. Despite ongoing conflicts with Israel and two separate oil crisis, the region received increased investment from Western nations. As demand for oil in the West created more economic interest in the region, richer nations increased humanitarian

and monetary aid in the Middle East in an attempt to secure their needs in the midst of an unstable political situation. During this period, the region saw its most dramatic decline in pov-erty. With an economic growth rival-ing that of middle-income countries, some nations such as Egypt and Tuni-sia achieved almost a 50% reduction in the incidence of poverty. Even Iran, in the midst of an oil embargo by the United States, experienced increased rates of employment and economic production. After insistent intervention from the West, nations implemented what was to be called the “archetyp-al social policy model of the region.” This model comprised three main components: an education and health component in which free education and primary health care services were promised to all citizens; a consump-tion-subsidy component in which key consumption items, such as food and energy, were provided at subsidized

Topic II: Middle East-ern Poverty and Its EffectsTopic History


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233 per thousand live births to 108; and life expectancy rose from approxi-mately 50 years to 61 years. However, after 1990, very little progress was made in the reduction of poverty. Despite continuing in-crease in development indices, per capita GDP remained stagnant. States then started to decentralize economic power away from the government and move it towards private enterprise. As attempts to transition from a statist to a market-oriented economic regime, which had gathered momentum in the mid-1980s, failed due to a collapse of

rates to most citizens; and a public employment component through which permanent jobs (and associated old-age pension benefits) were provid-ed to many citizens. Countries such as Egypt were at the forefront of this social reform. During his presidency, Egypt’s 2nd President, Gamal Abdel Nasser, made free education and job security two ar-eas of focus and guaranteed that every high school graduate would be guar-anteed a position in the public sector. This policy contributed tremendously to alleviating Egyptian levels of pov-erty, which dropped from 82 percent to 53 percent between 1975 and 1985. Countries such as Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq also adopted a similar policy, and tackled the lack of educational infra-structure by building eleven regional universities by 1960. With the social policy in place, many Middle Eastern nations experi-enced unprecedented improvements in education and health care. Between 1965 and 1985, adult literacy almost doubled in the region, rising from 24 percent to 47 percent; average school-ing completed by those over 15 years of age rose more than fourfold, from 0.8 to 3.4 years; mortality rates for children less than 5 years old fell from


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growth following a decline in the price of hydrocarbons and other fossil fuels, productivity declined dramatically in the region and nations became more and more burdened by debt. By 2000, the region’s average per capita output had only reached $11.3 per day (PPP$) and had not fully recovered to its 1985 level. Prices of hydrocarbons continued to drop, partly due to declining remittances and aid flows. The pre-1980 era was a period of tremendous growth, as the post-WWII states had little to no in-frastructure or political stability before then, and so wealth and development during that early growth stage contrib-uted to the massive decline in poverty. But while pre-1980 reforms had done much to change public health and education services, infrastructural reforms were neglected and imple-mented very sparingly, and those in place reaped few benefits, as they were often expensive and ineffective. One of these policies was the system of guaranteed public positions for high school graduates. As literacy increased dramatically, the public sector became overcrowded and “welfare employ-ment” became the primary source of income for many families. This proved to be a huge expense for the Middle Eastern states, who, in order to keep

University of Warwick’s Modern Records Centre

their citizens employed and to finance the increasing number of infrastructur-al projects being undertaken, took out significant loans in order to maintain the momentum for economic growth. Fur-thermore, while education had made an important mark in the region, the yield of higher-education graduates and qual-ified workers remained low, as much of the government positions only required the partial completion of high school.

Thus, very little progress was made on the poverty front. The region’s average poverty rate fluctuated between 20 and 25 percent during the entire decade of the 1990s. By 2001, approximately 52 million people were poor, an increase in absolute numbers of approximately 11.5 million people, compared with the situation in 1987.


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Despite efforts by international or-ganizations to pump aid into Middle Eastern economies, remote rural areas continued to suffer from extreme levels of poverty. With government activity centralized almost exclusive-ly to the most populated areas of the country, rural farmers experienced very little of the social reforms. Farm-ers did, however, suffer from the eco-nomic consequences of trade with the West. With the price of oil and oth-er commodities rising, rural farmers struggled to increase production and keep up with the elastic food market. Although farmers had to produce subsistence crops, global food prices and competition from subsidized first-world imports and food aid, left them unable to compete. During the period between 1980 and 2000, the region also saw the rise of two major militant movements: the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Along with other minor groups such as the Haqqani and Jundallah, they an objec-tive of upholding strict sharia law; the very conservative moral and religious code of Islam which includes practices such as the wearing of hijab by women

and opposing western influence in the Middle East, these two organizations started to build their support with the rural farmers. Although not formally established, patronage systems were already in place and insurgents utilized this system to gain support from poor farmers by offering them protection and a small amount of money for them to start harvesting cash crops to finance their organizations’ activities. While many farmers did not sympathize or support these militant organizations’ ac-tivities, the alliance was so profitable that they switched their entire production to opiates. By the end of 1992, Afghanistan had over 48,000 acres of opium poppy under cultivation, capable of producing 705 tons of opium or 70 tons of heroin. Soon, however, in areas such as Afghan-istan, farmers, which had switched from crops such as grain to planting fields of poppy, saw their fields taken over by the Taliban.

Drug Production

Human TraffickingThe dire prospect of permanent poverty in the Middle East as well as the new employment cuts in the public sector, caused a massive influx of immigrants to neighboring countries as well as Eu-rope. Over the period of 1992 to 1997,


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almost all of the illegal immigrants to Europe originated from the Middle East and Northern Africa (230,000 in the year 2000). Lacking documents and often unable to speak the lan-guage, they often had no choice but to work in virtual slavery. This problem of poverty ex-ploitation was further worsened when militant groups started gaining control over some rural regions, they took ad-vantage of the low levels of education of the population, especially amongst women, to increase their sources of finance by forcing them into prosti-tution, domestic work or non-con-sensual marriage, setting up a stable flow of victims and a well-established structure of recruitment and transpor-tation. In response to these practices, countries such as Iran, Jordan, Syria and Kuwait passed laws that required women to be of age of maturity in or-der to legally enter a marriage, follow-ing the 1962 Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Mar-riage and Registration of Marriages.


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EXTREMIST SHARIA (ISLAMIC LAW) Also meaning "path" in Arabic, sharia guides all aspects of Muslim life, including daily

routines, familial and religious obligations, and financial dealings. It is derived primarily from the Quran and the Sunna-‐-‐the sayings, practices, and teachings of the Prophet Mohammed. The consensus of the Muslim community also plays a role in defining this theological manual.

There is a lot of misinterpretation of the content of shari’a. Although Islamic law is widely interpreted as a humanitarian, equalizing and fair system of rules, some extremist groups (often due to their inability to comprehend Arabic and the Quran, which is why most of them are found in non-‐Arab speaking countries) carry out violent activities in the name of shari’a.

Extreme shari‘a divides the world into two opposing domains: the House of Islam and the House of War. Muslims are supposed to wage jihad to change the House of War (where non-‐Muslims are dominant) into the House of Islam, dominated by Muslims. While some modern Muslims reject this aggressive understanding of jihad, and see it merely as a strengthening of personal faith, most agree that jihad includes defending Muslim territory and Muslims from any form of aggression; this leaves the door open to interpreting any conflict involving Muslims as a case of defensive jihad. Islamic terror groups justify their atrocities by references to the shari'a rules on jihad.

Extreme shari'a tries to describe in detail all possible human acts, dividing them into permitted and prohibited. It also regulates the governing of the Islamic state and its relations to non-‐Muslims within the state as well as to enemies outside the state. Shari'a influences the behavior and worldview of most Muslims, even in secular states where it forms no part of the law of the land.

Islam teaches that shari'a, as God’s revealed law, perfect and eternal, is binding on individuals, society and state in all its details. By logical extension, any criticism of shari'a is heresy. The mandates of shari'a are extremely harsh compared to modern Western standards. They infringe on many modern principles of human rights, religious freedom, and equality of all before the law.

Extreme shari'a also discriminates on the basis of gender. Men are regarded as superior. Women are treated as deficient in intelligence, morals and religion, and must therefore be protected from their own weaknesses. Women are inherently of less value than men in many legal rulings. A man is allowed up to four wives, but women can have only one husband. A man can divorce his wife easily; a woman faces great obstacles should she want a divorce from her husband. A daughter inherits half as much as a son, and the testimony of a female witness in court is worth only half that of a male witness. In cases of murder, the compensation for a woman is less than that given for a man. Extreme shari'a courts often display a clear gender bias. This is seen in the widespread practice of accusing rape victims of illicit sexual relations, an offense which carries punishments ranging from imprisonment and flogging to death by stoning.

Both Qur’an and hadith urge modesty in women’s dress and command them to cover themselves in public. The problem is a matter of interpretation of the original Arabic words used.

Most Sunni Muslims believe shari‘a to be completely unchangeable, although Shi'as allow for the possibility of interpreting and adapting it to new circumstances. Since the nineteenth century, there have been efforts at reforming shari'a in a liberal direction in order to accommodate it to the modern world, but in the contemporary Muslim world, the traditionalists and especially the Islamists are now dominating public opinion.


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of supplying Afghanistan. For exam-ple, Pakistan played a leading role in supply, Saudi Arabia contributed financially, and Egypt provided So-viet-origin arms. However, with the changing political climate in the re-gion, the US soon withdrew its arms support. Surplus Cold War vintage small arms are now the staple arms import into conflict areas such sub-Sa-haran Africa, which come primarily from the Middle East.

The supply of small arms and light weapons has been globalizing since the end of the Cold War. The fall of the Soviet Union resulted in a flood of surplus weapons from former Soviet States eager to sell them. This lead to a “loosening” of state control over the arms trade and a flow of weapons into the Middle East. Before the 1980s, only richer countries controlled the arms trade and manufacturing indus-try, but during the Cold War, many nations in the Middle East were flood-ed with small arms by nations such as the United States and the former Soviet Union and their major allies – a few of which include Iran and Afghan-istan. Even though the Cold War had ended, the small arms still remain in these nations and help fuel political and ethnic differences into conflict. As an example, in 1979 the Afghan Mujahedin was being provid-ed with small arms by the US gov-ernment to aid in their fight against the Soviet Union, and many of these weapons remain in the territory to this day and is believed to be one of the most expensive covert operations by the CIA, estimated at around 3 billion dollars. In addition, a number of other states were drawn into the operation

Small Arms Trade

Past UNDP ActionThe UNDP supports countries in the Arab Region to reduce poverty through regional programmes, proj-ects and initiatives targeting key areas identified by national partners. These include the following:

• The Arab Trade Initiative, which aims at poverty reduction through building government and pri-vate-sector capacity to seize oppor-tunities for human development through global trade.

• Working with ministries from several countries at a time, including Tunisia and Morocco, to develop ca-pacity to use macro-economic sim-ulation to determine the investment needed to meet the MDGs.


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The UNDP has also identified lack of political involvement as the root problem of many of the development challenges in the Middle East. With an emphasis on local governance and power decentralization to politically empower the rural communities most detached from the central government and in most threat of suffering the ills detailed in this guide, one of the most prominent roles of the UNDP in the Middle Eastern region has been to encourage democratic power through-out all socioeconomic levels. This has been done mainly through the Pro-gramme on Governance in the Arab Region (POGAR).

In the last decade, as political instabil-ity and anti-Western rhetoric and vi-olence plague the region, tackling the problem of poverty in the Middle East has become an issue of the utmost concern for the international com-munity. Although compared to other regions of the world, Middle Eastern poverty levels are extremely low (only 2.9% living under USD $1 a day in 2003, compared to a world average of 19.7%) it is a region whose poverty problem must be addressed in order to begin ameliorating the problems of violence in the area, and as an ethical and social responsibility detailed in the UNDP’s Millennium Development Goals:

• Conducting poverty assessments and cross-country comparisons to build actionable awareness of the status and dynamics of poverty in several countries, including Leba-non, Syria and Yemen.

• Assisting groups of countries in the development of specific so-cio-economic policies aimed at enhancing pro-poor strategies for human development.

Current Situation

• Eradicate poverty and hunger• Achieve universal primary educa-tion• Promote gender equality and em-power women• Reduce child mortality• Improve maternal health• Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases• Ensure environmental sustain-ability• Develop a global partnership for development


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beliefs of the rural population. Income inequality in the Mid-dle East is one of the main causes of discontent, with a 6:1 ratio of unequal distribution of wealth, where the rich-est 20% make 6 times as much as the poorest 20%, and there is increased discontent over government policies that exacerbate this vast difference in wealth. Safety nets in the Middle East, such as food and energy subsidies, while initially put in place to favor the poor, are inefficient in that they involve a lot of resource leakage to the non-poor populace.

Another important role of the UNDP is to improve and promote democratic governance in developing countries; strengthen electoral and legislative systems, improve access to justice and public administration and develop a greater capacity to deliver basic ser-vices to those most in need. In a re-gion with such wealth disparities and such a dramatic urban-rural divide, the poverty-stricken are sometimes incapable of playing an effective and positive political role by participating in political life. Lack of political par-ticipation is one of the main causes for corruption and the incidence of oppressive governments, as the Arab Spring illuminated, and one contrib-uting factor to why non-governmental groups have such a large influence in rural areas. One of the challenges that the UNDP faces, however, is establishing a lasting and sustainable development strategy in poverty-stricken areas. Issues of mistrust and cultural mis-understanding often arise, and the role of the UNDP is to act within the framework and culture of each area it operates it. Regional organizations and projects should focus on finding sim-ple and appropriate ways to tackle the poverty problem without encroaching on the often traditional and strict

The benefit transfers from energy sub-sidies, in particular, are heavily tilted toward the non-poor: as much as 93% of gasoline subsidies in Egypt go to the richest quintile of consumers. At the same time, although cash transfers

WorldBank


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are relatively better targeted to the poor and the vulnerable, they are funded at such low levels (often less than 1% of GDP) that they are not very effective in improving the condi-tions of the poor. Naturally, countries that benefit from the export of Middle Eastern oil, a group that has recently expanded to include countries such as China and India, have higher stakes in the matter and an interest to continue government subsidies of crude oil, as it reduces export costs. Although dependence on fossil fuel extraction is one of the main obstacles for Middle Eastern economic growth, the most developed countries have incentives to prevent diversification of Middle East-ern economies, as many of the most powerful nations are still dependent on their supply of crude oil. Corruption also plays an im-portant role in exacerbating the wealth inequality. Although Middle Eastern governments range from parliamen-tary democracies to monarchies, one common denominator is the wide-spread corruption and misallocation of government resources. One of the goals of the UNDP being the promo-tion of democratic governance, the UNDP is faced with the difficult task of tackling a political issue from a

developmental approach, taking care not to challenge a government’s right to sovereignty. One possible solution to this problem is increasing political participation of marginal populations such as women and rural farmers. This approach may run into problem of having to deal with deeply entrenched cultural and social practices that may, both from the part of the government and the people oppose these type of initiative. Another important factor, contributing to poverty, as mentioned above, is gender inequality. Data show that the Middle East and North Af-rica has the lowest female labor force participation rate of any developing region at 28.4% in 2004, a figure that, if increased, would contribute tremen-dously to the region’s GDP and eco-nomic growth. One of the main causes for this is lack of education. Despite the increase of public education ser-vices throughout the region, cultural and religious traditions, especially in the rural areas, often prevent wom-en from finishing even basic levels of education. Yemen has the lowest female-to-male literacy ratio where only 60 young women are literate for every 100 literate young men.


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programs to be implemented, and in order to do so, an additional educa-tion program may be needed. Some parties may consider such a devia-tion from traditional practice (lack of female education) a neocolonialist imposition from the part of the West, but women remain the most vulnera-ble and unexploited population in the region, and the UNDP cannot ignore the need for an improvement in the situation of Middle Eastern women.For the UNDP, whose purpose is to act as a global development network, targeting the huge poverty problem in the Middle East is crucial not only for the obstacles it creates in advancing human development, but also because it, indirectly, contributes to the in-creasing violence, political discontent and conflict in the region by creating incentives to engage in activities that support criminal or militant groups.

Lack of female education is directly linked to the high rate of population growth in the region, with an average rate of growth of 3% per annum. How-ever, the average regional population growth rate is the second highest of any region in the world, exceeded only by the sub-Saharan Africa region. This not only contributes to the stress on natural resources, but also to the rising unemployment rate, which run from below 10% in Saudi Arabia and Syria to over 30% in Iran, the West Bank, Lebanon, and Yemen and as high as 50% in Gaza. How should the UNDP deal then, with female education? While ensuring that girls achieve at least a basic level of education, education programs would have to approach the issue from a variety of directions. They should comply at least to some extent with the traditional beliefs of the local people in order for them to allow

WorldBank

Progress of UNDP ActionAs mentioned in the previous section, various programmes have been imple-mented by the UNDP in order to tack-le the widespread problem of poverty in the Middle East, some with more success than others. The Arab Trade Initiative, which started working with the


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International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC), is leading an ini-tiative to develop the trade capacity of Arab countries and provide momen-tum for the realization of the Pan-Ar-ab free trade area. The initiative en-compasses unleashing entrepreneurial potential and creative talents, diversi-fying Arab economies, and providing women and men with the economic opportunities they need to live a better life and build more resilient and inclu-sive societies – an immense step to-wards economic growth and potential stability for these states. Thanks to UNDP assessments, many Middle Eastern states are well on their way to achieving the Millen-nium Development Goals, especially in the Mashreq region as it had nearly reached the 0.2% goal of reducing the proportion of people living on less than $1.25-a-day by 2009. The UNDP’s first Arab Devel-opment Challenges Report for 2009, produced jointly with the Arab League served as basis for the different pro-grammes which were endorsed in the first Kuwait Arab Economic and Social Summit in 2009 aimed at help-ing achieve the MDGs and reducing poverty and unemployment. Growth, however, has been comparative. Al-though experiencing low levels of

poverty to begin with, the Mashreq region has seen little change in its poverty and unemployment levels, contrasted by rapid progress on em-ployment and poverty in the Maghreb countries. In the LDCs sub-region, poverty and hunger are expected to have risen since 2005, as a result of rising food and fuel prices. Other country-specific UNDP programs have proven to have posi-tive effects on education, such as the initiatives in Iran, Egypt and Jordan. However, a new problem has aris-en, distribution of years of schooling has improved over time while that of income has not. This means that while development tactics are faring well, economic ones are lagging behind, creating a problem of education in-equality. The increase in family out-of-pocket expenditures on education, connected to the expansion of private schools and private tutoring has creat-ed a new source of inequality in edu-cation. For example, in Egypt, Iran, Jordan, and Turkey private tutoring has become an essential part of prepa-ration in admission into universities. These expenditures naturally create inequities in educational achievement, as the poor are unable to afford these costs and thus may lose in the com-petition for limited spaces in public universities.


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advantage of the poor rural popula-tion, which often leaves them even more vulnerable. The situation in Afghanistan, for example, is well known: there is an intimate connection between opiate production and the ability of the Taliban and warlords to engage in long-term conflict. The United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates that the Afghan Taliban earned around US$155 mil-lion in 2009, Afghan drug traffickers US$2.2 billion, and Afghan farmers US$440 million from the sales of Afghan opiates. Destitution in the province of Kandahar has made poppy one of the top three cultivated crops in Afghanistan despite attempts at erad-ication and “alternative development.” Collaboration with groups such as the Taliban is often difficult for farmers, since their power is often exercised through violence and intimidation, but because this is the only alternative to poverty that they have available, more and more farmers form alliances with them, even if that means being unable to cultivate food (as fields need to be used exclusively for poppy plant-ing) and being in constant fear of their and their families’ lives. Tackling this issue from a devel-opmental aspect is very complicated

The Middle East conflict regions are currently trapped in a vicious cycle: the poor development in the region fu-els conflict, which in turn exacerbates the drug trade, which feedbacks back to conflict, and which finally fuels pov-erty. The illegal drug trade is a major source of funding for violent militant organizations in the Middle East, and poverty is a large contributing factor in allowing these groups to take

Drug Production


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and something with which the UNDP has struggled over the last few de-cades. Unable to send defensive forc-es to protect the farmers, and due to poor monitoring systems and in-efficient government practices, also unable to locate potential sources of conflict, the UNDP’s reaction has to be mainly reactionary. Oftentimes the UNDP will react to a conflict where a community has established ties with a militant group and subsequently suffered an attack from this group by offering rehabilitation and by provid-ing aid. Due to the isolated nature of some of these villages, without coop-eration from the local government and extensive information networks, it is extremely difficult to detect drug plantations, and even more difficult to determine the linkage to a militant organization. Even if drug plantations are identified and development programs put in place, farmers are often unwill-ing to cooperate with them due to the lucrative nature of drug production, as opium can be up to ten times more profitable than crops such as wheat. Farmers may also be weary of outsid-ers implementing programs in their small communities, whether due to unfamiliarity with foreign interven-tion or due to fear that if they

cooperate, the militant organizations they provide for will punish them. Thus, a solution to this problem should include both an alternative crop or industry which can match the high value of drug production as well as a method of protection the people from potential aggression. The problem of drug trade, however, is not only confined to the areas under the influence of militant groups. As a result of escalading con-flict and corruption, border control is very inefficient and sometimes even inexistent in some areas. The influence of drug cartels and other drug trading groups often extends along country borders and the flow of raw materials is often unimpeded by either country’s authorities. For example, outside Af-ghanistan, Iran and Lebanon are also major opiate producers, and Morocco is the main source of Hashish despite little militant activity in those areas. The proliferation of drugs throughout the region, combined with inefficient or inexistent border control and polit-ical corruption, have made the illicit drug trade an immense problem for the Middle East separate from that of being a source of income for militant groups.


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This lack of information causes var-ious problems as they consume and administer drugs liberally. As a result, in places such as Iran, heroin use per capita is the highest in the world, surpassing the US. The story is simi-lar in Iraq, whose health ministry in 2008 estimated that the city of Kerbala alone had almost 1000 addicts. As a result of this, the incidence of HIV/AIDS in the Middle Eastern region, which was not previously a partic-ularly prevalent problem, is rapidly increasing.

Although border patrol seems to be the obvious answer to the problem, there is debate over whether it is safe to send border-monitoring services to areas, which are heavily controlled by violent armed groups, groups that are also the main perpetrators of said il-legal traffic. Furthermore, these mon-itoring services would likely have to face corrupt government officials who enable this type of illegal activity, and thus friction between these services and the central government would arise. Not only has production be-come a problem, but drug consump-tion and its related ills are also taking a toll on the quality of life of the poor and the region’s already fragile econo-my. Most of the poor farmers, having switched completely from subsistence crops to a monoculture of opiates, have minimal information regarding the effects of the crops they are cul-tivating. Without subsistence crops, poor families find themselves without the traditional foods and medicinal plants they are used to having. Now forced to buy most of the food and medicine that their families need, instead of getting them from their own produce, farmers find themselves misinformed and misusing their new crops.

Human TraffickingNowadays, the trafficking of persons is the fastest growing and most prof-itable criminal activity in the Middle East after drug and arms trafficking, generating roughly US$ 1.5 billion a year. Some of the most prevalent forms of human trafficking in the re-gion are forced labor of migrant work-ers, sexual enslavement and forced prostitution, and camel jockeying.While child trafficking for adoption is almost non-existent in the Middle East, children are sometimes trafficked to Middle Eastern countries to serve as camel jockeys in camel races, and often placed into situations of com-pulsory or forced labor in slave-like conditions, which are frequently


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accompanied by physical abuse. Re-ports indicate that children as young as three are either sold by their parents in exchange for as little as US$500, or kidnapped, and taken to the Unit-ed Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and other Gulf States, where camel racing is a popular sport among the wealthy. These children are underfed to main-tain their low weight, and often fall off the camels, resulting in serious inju-ries and even death.

Conservative estimates put the num-ber of trafficked children at over 15,000 in some provinces. The other form of labor traf-ficking in the Middle East is domes-tic service. Women migrate in great number to Middle Eastern countries to work. The Jordanian Ministry of Labor estimated that a total of 25,656 female migrants were working in Jor-dan mainly from South East Asia and Northern Africa. Some forms of marriage in the Middle Eastern countries have been used to legitimize prostitution and other forms of sexual exploitation. Most notably, the Islamic institutions of early marriage and temporary marriage called “Misyar marriages,” in which many obligations of mar-riage from the part of the husband towards the wife such as housing and maintenance money is eliminated and the only binding action is sexual intercourse, have been questioned as amounting to the exploitation and abuse of women. However, Islamic law freed women who were considered property subject to “transfer” and “inheritance” in pre-Islamic society, and although Islamic law does not provide for a minimum age of marriage, it requires


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a destination country where their documentation and passports are forcibly taken from them as soon as they arrive. These women often find themselves in slave-like situations. Once trafficked into the sex industry, traffickers control the women through physical and psychological means. Almost always, the root cause of vulnerability of the trafficked peo-ple is poverty, especially in the case of women. Fewer work opportunities for women have led to prostitution as an alternative. In Egypt, women from lower-class backgrounds see that a few nights in prostitution generate more money than one month’s work in the public sector. Furthermore, the large econom-ic disparities between Middle Eastern countries, and even within individual nations, perpetuate human trafficking. While richer areas provide an increas-ing demand for services, the rural poor population, often ruled by crim-inal groups, find that they have noth-ing to lose by attempting to supply the rich’s demand. This is exacerbated by a systematic lack of information and education, resulting in the crimi-nals’ ability to manipulate the poverty stricken and education bereft popu-lace.

legal capacity, which assumes maturity and puberty. Again, although the most pow-erful tool for female empowerment and protection from trafficking is edu-cation, how will the UNDP conciliate its efforts to prevent female exploita-tion with traditional Muslim values, especially those that are so institution-alized within Islamic law?

However, standard prostitution is also common in the area. Countries such as Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Morocco and Turkey are countries of origin for women trafficked within the Middle East and Western Europe. Some young impoverished women are attracted to the sex industry because it appears to offer quick and easy money. Traffickers often lure desperate young women with the promise of a better paying job or higher education into


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Another problem with human traffick-ing is the near impossibility of retriev-al. Although some nations may want to focus on demobilization, retrieval and rehabilitation of victims of human trafficking, some consider it more efficient to focus on prevention. Often, victims are taken to richer nations that have a vested interest in continuing the flow of cheap or free labor and services. Since the victims of human trafficking are taken from small rural villages, there is little documentation available in order to be able to find them once abducted.

trafficking of small arms provides militant groups with easily attainable weapons and income. In producer countries, arms are more widely avail-able than ever before - especially in the Middle East where they can be obtained for relatively low prices on the black market. Thus, even the poor can have access to such weapons, con-tributing in large part to arms misuse. Oftentimes, due to the large availabil-ity of guns and the exorbitantly high prices of first-necessity goods due to inflation or undercutting, buying a gun could be as cheap or even cheaper than buying food. Problems resulting from ci-vilian gun-owners in places such as Iraq and Iran are ever-increasing as a result of ongoing conflict and a lack of education. The estimated total num-ber of guns held by civilians in Iraq is 9,750,000 and in Iran 3.500,000 (34.2% and 7.3% respectively). Often, this means that instead of making investments in improving their well-being and economic development, the already poor are burdened with the cost of nursing the injured and paying for informal forms of security such as vigilantism and para-militaries. While the law in most Middle Eastern coun-tries is that gun owners have to be licensed, the guns marked and any

Civilian Gun-OwnersSmall arms are the cause of 90% of combat-related casualties. Today, 95 countries legally produce guns, almost half the nations on earth. Aside from being a producer, the Middle East is also a region of high military expenditure relative to GDP of arms imports, with 7 of the 10 countries with the highest military burdens in 2007 being Mid-dle Eastern. Mixed with relaxed export controls, and poor economic conditions that create an urgency to sell and export, it is economically beneficial for these countries to continue to buy and pro-duce small arms. In the Middle East this poses a significant problem because the illegal


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transaction recorded and monitored, these regulations are very rarely en-forced and most of the guns in the region are not registered. Thus, small arms availability poses great challeng-es to countries attempting to rebuild their communities after a war or instill peace in a war-stricken region such as the Middle Eastern territories. In many cases, lack of government con-trol and proper education, especially in remote rural areas, have caused massive civilian casualties as com-munities have attempted to fight the better-equipped and better-organized militant groups. Another problem arises when producing nations, especially devel-oped ones such as China and the USA, despite engaging in military and eco-nomic sanctions with many Middle Eastern countries, continue to main-tain a flow of weapons and other mil-itary equipment and therefore would not benefit from increased monitor-ing.

intervention from other countries and attempts of ‘neo-colonialism’ are always eyed with suspicion. One of the main concerns is that much of their economic stagnation is due to trade policies with the West as well as the military intervention in their region, which, to some extent, is also a factor in perpetuating poverty.

Africa Similar to that of the Middle East, Northern African interests are in favor of the elimination of civic un-rest and violent conflict. Their focus, however, is how the problem in the Middle East spills out into their own continent. As their countries suffer independently from similar ills such as illegal arms trade, human and drug trafficking and armed conflict – even to a larger extent than the Middle East - African nations are mostly support-ive of political and economic reform.

East Asia Like Africa, East Asia, can very much empathize with the region’s dire situation and favors more aggressive reforms in the area of democracy and public governance. Unlike Africa, however, they are more interested in humanitarian issues, for much of the illegal human and drug trafficking

Bloc Positions

Middle East Middle Eastern countries have an economic and social interest to eradicate poverty and violence in their territory. However, political


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routes are between East Asia and the Middle East. In large part, these na-tions would like to see a more human developmental approach to the pover-ty issue.

West Asia/Europe The surrounding developed areas around the Middle East have different interests and responsibilities in the matter. Most of them have to deal with massive waves of migration into their territories and would like to see a more permanent, infrastructural change in the Middle Eastern situa-tion regarding poverty and its effects. Furthermore, as the wealthier neigh-bors of this region, most of the time they are consumers of the illegal trade that occurs in this region, and have a strong interest in stopping illegal trade markets.

Latin America and the Caribbean This region suffers from similar problems to those plaguing the Mid-dle East. Being more detached geo-graphically, however, they favor more radical changes and a more aggressive campaign in both the humanitarian and the economic and governmental approach to the eradication of poverty. Like the Latin American model, the approach proposed should be

multilateral, addressing both the basic needs of the people in the humani-tarian sense by providing foreign aid but also emphasizing the creation of a policy that would sustain economic and social growth and would force the government to provide for its own citizens.

NATO NATO countries have a great-er interest in upholding the UNDP’s goal of encouraging democratic gov-ernance in the Middle East. Being directly involved in the conflict areas of the region, NATO also desperately wants to prevent the proliferation of the violent militant groups in addi-tion to providing social rehabilitation programs to those affected by such organizations so as to cut off the flow of human capital into these groups.


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Keep in mind these questions:

• What are the main issues that the UNDP, the Economic and Social Council and/or the General Assembly focus on in order to reduce extreme levels of poverty in the Middle Eastern region? Is it social? Infrastructural? Economic? Political?

• How can the UNDP, given its role as a humanitarian organization, promote polit-ical stability in the region and address the political and economic factors that foster the high incidence of poverty in the Middle East?

• How can the region overcome the weak administrative and governance structures in order to implement more efficient safety net schemes that will provide a compre-hensive approach to development – human development and economic growth?

• What tools can be given to the poor in order to help them fight against and/or resist the influence of violent militant groups?

• Similarly, what can the UNDP do to prevent the poor from having to rely on other illegal activities?

• What can be done to empower the poor politically, taking into consideration the current political order of the region? Can political aid be provided within the con-text of the UNDP’s task of develop institutions and processes that are more respon-sive to the needs of citizens?

• What would be the appropriate approach to improve the status of women in the often-conservative Muslim rural communities?

Questions to Consider


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• UNDP’s Official Website o http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home.html

• UNDP for Beginners o http://www.jposc.org/documents/UNDP%20for%20Beginners/UNDP_ for_Beginners_en.pdf

• United Nations’ Human Development Report o http://hdr.undp.org/en/

• United Nation’s Human Development Report on the Middle East o http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2010/papers/HDRP_2010_26. pdf

• United Nation’s Arab Development Challenges Report for 2011 o http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/librarypage/hdr/arab-devel opment-challenges-report-2011.html

• International Monetary Fund – Regional Economic Outlook o http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/reo/2012/mcd/eng/pdf/mena-up date0412.pdf

• UNODC – Global Report on Trafficking in Persons o http://www.unodc.org/documents/Global_Report_on_TIP.pdf

• UNODC – World Drug Report ohttp://www.unodc.org/documents/wdr/WDR_2010/World_Drug_Re port_2010_lo-res.pdF

Suggestions for Further Research


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• UN - Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons o https://www.un.org/events/smallarms2006/pdf/N0150720.pdf

• United Nations’ Official Documents System Search o http://www.un.org/en/documents/ods/

• US Institute for Peace - How Opium Profits the Taliban o http://www.usip.org/files/resources/taliban_opium_1.pdf

• World Bank Publications o http://www.worldbank.org/reference/

• The World Bank’s Development Report o http://wdronline.worldbank.org/

• Foreign Policy o http://www.foreignpolicy.com/

• The Economist o http://www.economist.com/

• AlJazeera o http://www.aljazeera.com/


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• Kurdish - Kurds are reckoned to be the fourth largest ethnic group in the Middle East, following Arabs, Turks, and Persians. There are important Kurdish minorities in Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Syria, and Iraq’s Kurds are concentrated in the relatively inaccessible mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan. Kurds constitute a separate and distinc-tive cultural group. They are mostly Sunni Muslims.

• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) - A severe anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to any event that results in psychological trauma. This event may involve the threat of death to oneself or to someone else, or to one’s own or someone else’s physical, sexual, or psychological integrity, overwhelming the indi-vidual’s ability to cope.

• Grass-roots projects - A movement driven by the politics of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it are natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a move-ment that is orchestrated by traditional power structures. Grassroots movements are often at the local level.

• Statist regime - A centralized government with control over economic planning and policy.

• Market-oriented regime - A regime whose decisions regarding investment, pro-duction and distribution are based on supply and demand, and prices of goods and services are determined in a free price system.

• Remittance - A transfer of money by a foreign worker to his or her home country.

• Elastic food market - If the price for an item with an elastic demand goes up, the demand for it will go down. If an item has inelastic demand, the demand for it will not be affected by the price of it.

Glossary


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• Mujahedin - A military force of Muslim guerilla warriors engaged in a jihad.

• Jihad - The Arabic for what can be variously translated as “struggle” or “effort,” or “to strive,” “to exert,” “to fight,” depending on the context. In the West, the word is generally understood to mean “holy war.”

• Mashreq - Geographic region extending from the western border of Egypt to the western border of Iran. It includes the modern states of Egypt, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq and covers an area of approximately 2.7 million square miles.

• Maghreb - Region of North Africa bordering the Mediterranean Sea. The Africa Minor of the ancients, it at one time included Moorish Spain and now comprises essentially the Atlas Mountains and the coastal plain of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya.

• LDC - Less Developed Country

• Alternative development - Alternative development means giving farmers an economically viable, legal alternative to growing coca bush, opium poppy or canna-bis plant.


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Today the UNDP has a budget of almost nine hundred million US dollars and is es-tablished as one of the greatest humanitarian aid networks in the world. It functions to both attract and use aid effectively across the globe. The success of the UNDP rests on its expertise and financial capacity to recommend and fund important de-velopment programs.

The UNDP works in four main areas: 1) Poverty Reduction and Achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 2) Democratic Governance 3) Crisis Prevention and Recovery 4) Environment and Sustainable Development

The UNDP is most famously known for its annual Human Development Report, which measures worldwide development and provides a wealth of empirical data. It also publishes the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), which are international development goals that 193 UN member states have agreed to achieve by the year 2015. Reducing child mortality rates and achieving universal primary education are two of the eight goals. The UNDP provides policy and technical advice to countries in order to support their work to achieve the MDGs, as well as coordinates efforts to report on progress.

Consistently neutral, the UNDP coordinates all UN development activities at the country level. The UNDP reinforces joint action on development in forums such as the General Assembly of the UN and the Economic and Social Council. As the chair of the United Nations Development Group, which includes key players in international development, the UNDP is at the center of efforts to reduce global poverty.

To improve effectiveness and efficiency, the Office of Audit and Investigation (OAI) oversees the operations of the UNDP, ensuring that corruption is kept at bay.

Role of the Committee


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Crisis prevention and recovery helps countries prevent armed conflict, while also creating rehabilitation pro-grams for those who have suffered. Peace-building initiatives are an inte-gral part of the poverty and democratic governance programs.

The UNDP can provide the advice and support needed to make the necessary developments in a country to both pre-vent and solve conflict. Additionally, the UNDP works in the 38 least devel-

oped countries as administers of the UN Capital Development Fund, promoting microfinance in support of peace and development through volunteerism.


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The United Nations Development Programme Executive Board comprises repre-sentatives from 36 countries around the world who serve on a rotating basis. The Board has at its disposition four Bureaus; the Partnerships Bureau, the Bureau for Development Policy, the Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery and the Bureau of Management, as well as UNDP offices in different member countries. The Board is under the authority of the Economic and Social Council.

Decisions of the Executive Board are focused and action-oriented, short and with-out preambular paragraphs.

Dialogue is the norm in discussion of items before the Board, with avoidance as much as possible of prepared written statements. In May 1996, the Board decided to establish a five-minute limit on oral statements.

Membership

According to geographic breakdown of membership legislated by General Assem-bly resolution 48/162 the current membership of the UNDP consists of the follow-ing nations:

African States (8 members) • Burkina Faso • Cameroon • Democratic Republic of the Congo • Mauritania • Rwanda • Sierra Leone • South Africa • Djibouti

Structure of the Committee


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Asian States (7 members) • Bangladesh • China • India • Iran (Islamic Republic of) • Pakistan • Qatar • Yemen

Latin America and the Caribbean (5 members) • Antigua and Barbuda • Argentina • Cuba • El Salvador • Mexico

Eastern European States (4 members) • Belarus • Czech Republic • Estonia • Russian Federation

Western Europe and other areas (12 states) • Canada • Denmark • Finland • Germany • Ireland • Italy • Japan • Luxembourg • Netherlands • Sweden • United Kingdom • United States


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Lawrence Ziring et al., The United Nations: International Organization and World Politics, (Belmont: Thomson Wadsworth, 2005), 497 United Nations Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, . Children and Armed Conflict, “Working with Partners.” Last modified http://childrenandarmedconflict.un.org/our-work/working-with-partners/. Accessed September 4, 2012. “Partners.” UNDP, 2012. http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/ourwork/partners.html (accessed Sep-tember 1, 2012 United Nations Peacekeeping, “Military.” Accessed September 2, 2012. http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/is-sues/military.shtml Invisible Children: Kony 2012, “Who we are.” Accessed September 2, 2012. http://invisiblechildren.com.

Notes