Study Guide - Kadir Has University – MUN

Kadir Has University
Model United Nations
08-11 May 2015
www.hasmun.org
Welcome Letter From Secretary-General
Distinguished participants and guests,
It’s my distinct honor and utmost pleasure to welcome you all to the second edition of Kadir
Has University Model United Nations Conference, HASMUN, which will be held from the
8th to the 11th of May 2015 at our Cibali campus located at the heart of Istanbul , Turkey.
For the past year, along with my wonderful colleagues ,we put a great effort on making the
first ever HASMUN conference a remarkable experience for future editions. Last year, we
held our first HASMUN conference successfully with over 200 high school and university
participants. As the second year of HASMUN begins, we push the limits even further and
expect to welcome more people from all around the world. HASMUN’15 Team would like to
bring a higher quality of Model United Nations we seek for to participants and at the same
time provide with a life-changing 4-day memorable experience in our charming campus
located on the shores of Golden Horn.
This year’s theme is “ Challenges facing the 21st century diplomacy and encouraging
diversity fellowship” and HASMUN’15 offers four UN committees including United Nations
Security Council, North Atlantic Treaty Organization ,Economic and Social Council, Social
and Humanitarian Committee. Delegates of the United Nations Security Council and North
Atlantic Treaty Organization will be chosen from experienced appliants and they will focus
on international politics.On the other hand, Economic and Social Council will be consisted of
high school students only because we strive to provide high school students with a better
understanding of the inner working of the United Nations to foster skills and compromise.
Social Humanitarian Committee are appeal for newcomers and experienced delegates.In addition to
these four UN Committees, this year we have set up Justice and
Home Affairs Council under the umbrella of European Union and additionally
International Court of Justice.Law students are kindly welcomed to Justice and
Home Affairs Council and the court whichwill tackle with law-based issues and
try to have deep insight to human rights related problems.
HASMUN’15 Team member have been chosen meticulously and we are working
tirelessly to make your experience at HASMUN’15 one to be remembered.
On behalf of the Academic and Operations Team, I kindly invite you to participate in the second
edition of Kadir HasUniversity Model United Nations
Conference, HASMUN’15.
Warm Regards,
Ecenur ORTAÇ
Secretary-General
HASMUN’15
ecenur.ortac@gmail.com
AGENDA ITEM 1: Agenda Item 1: Eradicating urban poverty
through sustainable urban development
A.INTRODUCTION
Urbanization and urban growth have
accelerated in many developing
countries in the past few years. In
1970, 37 percent of the world’s
population lived in cities. In 1995 this
figure was 45 percent, and the
proportion is expected to pass 50
percent by 2005 (United Nations’
Report 1995). While natural
population growth has been the major
contributor to urbanization, ruralurban migration continues to be an
important factor.1
As a result of the continuous
migrations, the urban life has been
affected in both advantageous and disadvantageous ways.
For centuries the world has been increasingly urbanizing, building and extending cities
and that makes “the issue of urban poverty” a central problem as more and more
people become concerned by this issue. This current situation encourages the societies
to make urban planning, city building and resources management which are some of
the most central components of the fight against urban poverty.
Moreover, the studies show that urban poverty exists everywhere, although with
different intensity, from poor to rich countries, and is recognizable in substandard
living conditions and incomes along with deficient provision of basic services. 2
The urban context of poverty caused a new formation in the society: “slums”. In those
informal settlements, many citizens have to face with many difficulties such as lack of
reliable sanitation services, supply of clean water, reliable electricity, timely law
enforcement and other basic services. The problem does not only exist in a material
base, those citizens, slum dwellers, also lack the advantages of the social environment.
With the help of both economic and social improvements, the urban poverty must be
ceased. Otherwise, it becomes an extreme threat for the future generations.
1
Urbanization and Urban Poverty: A Gender Analysis Report prepared for the Gender Equality Unit, Swedish
International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA),
http://www.bridge.ids.ac.uk/sites/bridge.ids.ac.uk/files/reports/re54.pdf
2
Urban Poverty: Tackling the Roots of Future Poverty?
http://www.poverties.org/urban-poverty.html
B. DEFINITION OF KEY TERMS
Poverty: General scarcity or dearth, or the state of one who lacks a certain amount of
material possessions or money. 3
Absolute Poverty: A condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human
needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter,
education and information. It depends not only on income but also on access to
services. 4
Urban Poverty: Even though there is no consensus on the definition, basically we can
outline “urban poverty” with these words: The condition of lacking an adequate
income or consumption complemented by a range of other social indicators such as
life expectancy, infant mortality, nutrition, the proportion of the household budget
spent on food, literacy, school enrolment rates, access to health clinics or drinking
water, in urban areas. 5
Slum: A slum is a heavily populated urban informal settlement characterized by
substandard housing and squalor. While slums differ in size and other characteristics
from country to country, most lack reliable sanitation services, supply of clean water,
reliable electricity, timely law enforcement and other basic services. 6
Slum Dwellers: The proportion of urban population lacking at least one of the
following five housing conditions: Access to improved water; Access to improved
sanitation facilities; Sufficient-living area, not overcrowded; Structural
quality/durability of dwellings; Security of tenure. 7
Sustainable Development: Development with sustainability that "meets the needs of
the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own
needs. 8
3
Poverty, Wikipedia,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty
4
“Indicators of Poverty & Hunger”, Dr. David Gordon,
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unyin/documents/ydiDavidGordon_poverty.pdf
5
Urbanisation and Urban Poverty: A Gender Analysis Report prepared for the Gender Equality Unit, Swedish
International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA),
http://www.bridge.ids.ac.uk/sites/bridge.ids.ac.uk/files/reports/re54.pdf
6
Slum, Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slum
7
Proportion of Urban Population Living in Slums, United Nations,
http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/natlinfo/indicators/methodology_sheets/poverty/urban_slums.pdf
8
United Nations, 1987, Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development
C. GENERAL OVERVIEW
1.Understanding Urban Poverty
Absolute poverty in an
urban context usually
involves five
interrelated aspects,
namely:
a) Inadequate or
unstable income, which
translates into
inadequate consumption
of basic necessities
b) Inadequate, unstable,
or risky asset base for
individuals, households,
or communities,
including those assets
that are important for
maintaining income, for coping with economic shocks, and for limiting environmental
hazards that can have serious health and economic costs
c) Limited or no right to make demands within the political system and to receive
entitlements, often within a framework that does not guarantee civil and political rights,
such as the right to representative government or the right to organize, make demands, and
get a fair response
d) Poor quality and/or insecure housing with inadequate provision of public infrastructure
and services (piped water, sanitation, drainage, health care, schools, emergency services),
which imposes a large health burden
e) Inadequate protection from the law, for instance, for civil and political rights, for health
and safety in the work place, for protection from pollution through environmental
legislation, and for protection from violence. 9
As a result, while tackling the issue of urban poverty, we have to bear in mind that the
causes of urban poverty are not only in a monetary base, but also there are non-monetary
causes.
9
Urban Poverty: Some Thoughts About its Scale and Nature and About Responses to It Diana Mitlin and David
Satterthwaite, International Institute for Environment and Development
http://www.rrojasdatabank.info/facets/facetsp211-238.pdf
1.1 Conceptual Framework of Urban Poverty10
a) Urban Poverty and Rural Poverty
Most studies attempting to describe urban poverty have focused on drawing out the
characteristics of urban poverty, often by comparing rural with urban poverty. However,
there is still much debate as to whether urban poverty differs from rural poverty and
whether policies to address the two should focus on different aspects of poverty.
In some views, rural and urban poverty are interrelated and there is a need to consider
both urban and rural poverty together for they have many structural causes in common,
e.g. socially constructed constraints to opportunities (class, gender) and macroeconomic
policies. 11 Even though, there have been some similar causes, the effects show a change
in rural and urban areas such as the lifestyle of slum dwellers and the socio-economic
development in the urban life throughout the history. So, this shows that we should
distinguish the urban poverty from the rural poverty and tackle the urban poverty as a
central problem.
b) Urban Development Policy
It is now widely recognized that the rapid growth of urban populations has led to a
worsening in absolute and relative poverty in urban areas. Urban poverty has, until
recently, been low on the agenda of development policy because of dominant perceptions
of urban bias and the need to counter this with a focus on rural development policy.
However, policy interest in urban issues is increasing as a result of two occurrences:
• projections of a large and increasing proportion of poor people living in urban areas,
partly as a result of urbanization;
• and claims that structural adjustment programs - which have removed some of the urban
bias, by removing price distortions - have led to a much faster increase in urban poverty
than rural poverty.
There have been two broad traditions in policy approaches to urban poverty. The first sets
of approaches have focused on the physical infrastructure problems of housing, sanitation,
water, land use and transportation. Recently there has been more emphasis on private
investment and an increased focus on institutional and management aspects of urban
development.
The second sets of broad approaches have focused on economic and social infrastructure
10
Urban Poverty and Data Sources
http://www.itc.nl/projects/info/upa/pack4/012_Package_IV_Lecture_Notes.pdf
11
Urbanisation and Urban Poverty: A Gender Analysis Report prepared for the Gender Equality Unit, Swedish
International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA),
http://www.bridge.ids.ac.uk/sites/bridge.ids.ac.uk/files/reports/re54.pdf
issues such as employment, education and community services.
Recently such approaches have put a lot of emphasis on sustainability issues and
community participation in projects and programming. More recently, concerns with the
urban environment and violence and insecurity in urban areas have come to the fore as
factors which undermine well-being and quality of life.
Furthermore, there is some evidence of a strong relationship between poor health and poor
environmental quality. The externalities of urban production are excessively tolerated by
the poor because of the three-dimensional association of industrial and residential
functions, high living densities, overcrowded housing in hazardous and inadequate supply
of clean water, sanitation and solid waste disposal services. 12
2. Existence of Slum Dwellers
UN-HABITAT and a group of experts defines a slum households as a group of individuals
living under the same roof lacking one or more of the following conditions:
• Access to improved water
• Access to improved sanitation facilities
• Sufficient living area, not overcrowded
• Structural quality/durability of dwellings
• Security of Tenure
2.1. Conceptual framework of slum formation (source: UN-HABITAT, 2003)
The world urban population have increased explosively over the past 50 years, and will
continue to do so for at least the next 30 years as the number of people born in cities
increase, people continue to migrate from rural to urban areas and incorporation of rural
communities by expanding cities. From 1950 to 2000 mankind has endured a rapid
expansion from 2.5 billion (29% urban) to 6 billion people (47% urban). In 2015 the
12
Urbanisation and Urban Poverty: A Gender Analysis Report prepared for the Gender Equality Unit, Swedish
International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA),
http://www.bridge.ids.ac.uk/sites/bridge.ids.ac.uk/files/reports/re54.pdf
world population will increase by another 1.2 billion people and 90% of this growth will
take place in cities. 13
According to estimations of UN-HABITAT, 924 million people (31.6% of the world’s
urban population in 2001) have been categorized as slum dwellers on the basis of an
operational definition on slums developed by an expert group meeting hosted by UNHABITAT.
If the percentage of slum population will not change, the slum population will expand
from 924 million (2001) to 1262 million at the end of 2015. “Deterring new slum
formation”, requires actions to improve not only the living conditions of the people
already living in slums but also reducing the current rate of slum formation. It is a major
challenge to create an enabling environment (provision of land, services and credits) to
offer dwelling options for all those new comers to the cities that are expected, without
severe-scaling of current efforts, to become part of the more than 300 million expected
new slum dwellers.
2.2. Global Urban Population Projection by Region
Urban residents who do not have access to adequate housing, or lack access to safe water,
sanitation, durable housing and secured tenure will be defined as slum dwellers.
Generally speaking, it is a predominant phenomenon in the city area that these people live
in overcrowded and unserved places, often situated on marginal and unsafe land. They
lack access to clean water, for which they will pay premium. Their waste remains
untreated; it surrounds them and their daily activities and affects their health, especially
their children.
These slum areas have, besides a poor living environment, also other distinct
characteristics such as fast growth, hazardous location, limited provision of social
facilities, insecure land tenure, and poor vulnerable to crime, diseases, social and
environmental conflicts.
13
United Nations Population Division,
http://esa.un.org/unpp
Slums are not an isolated phenomenon, but a result from an interaction between supply
and demand side factors that are poverty and lack of affordable housing respectively and
other factors such as poor governance, inefficient management of resources, etc. Poverty,
especially with low incomes and being short of employment opportunities constraints the
financial capacity of households to afford a decent living place and the life associated with
that.
On the other hand, inadequacies in the housing provision system as a supply side effect
will further stress the other end of the equation, which is to make poor people more
difficult to seek affordable accommodation.
Poverty results not only in poor living conditions but has wider negative implications such
as poor diets, limited access to education and health facilities. However many key
decision makers have been slow to recognize the urbanization of poverty and its linkages
to rural-urban gaps in living conditions as a severe development problem. 14
Urban Poverty Facts:
• Cities in the developing world will absorb 95% of the world’s expected population
growth between 2000 and 2030.
• According to recent estimates there are now over 900 million people who can be
classified as slum dwellers.
• Based on 2001 estimates, 43% of the urban population in the developing world lives in
slums. In the least developed countries, this percentage rises to more than 78%.
• If present trends continue, 1.5 billion people out of 3.3 billion urban residents will live in
slums by the year 2020.
3. Common Characteristics and Measurement of Slums
The problem with slums starts with the lack of an agreed definition. Without a common
definition, it is becoming very hard to measure the slums. As a result, enumeration of
slums has not yet been incorporated within mainstream monitoring instruments, such as
national population censuses, demographic and health surveys, and global surveys.
Definitely, there has to be a consensus on the definition of “slums” in order to eradicate
this kind of constructions. Here are most common characteristics that should be stated in
the all-inclusive definition of “slums”:
Lack of basic services: Lack of basic services is one of the most frequently mentioned
characteristics of slum definitions worldwide. Lack of access to sanitation facilities and
14
Urban Poverty and Data Sources
http://www.itc.nl/projects/info/upa/pack4/012_Package_IV_Lecture_Notes.pdf
safe water sources is the most important feature, sometimes supplemented by absence of
waste collection systems, electricity supply, surfaced roads and footpaths, street lighting
and rainwater drainage.
Substandard housing or illegal and inadequate building structures: Many cities have
building standards that set minimum requirements for residential buildings. Slum areas are
associated with a high number of substandard housing structures, often built with nonpermanent materials unsuitable for housing given local conditions of climate and location.
Factors contributing to a structure being considered substandard are, for example, earthen
floors, mud-and-wattle walls or straw roofs. Various space and dwelling placement bylaws
may also be extensively violated.
Overcrowding and high density: Overcrowding is associated with a low space per
person, high occupancy rates, cohabitation by different families and a high number of
single-room units. Many slum dwelling units are overcrowded, with five and more
persons sharing a one-room unit used for cooking, sleeping and living.
Unhealthy living conditions and hazardous locations: Unhealthy living conditions are
the result of a lack of basic services, with visible, open sewers, lack of pathways,
uncontrolled dumping of waste, polluted environments, etc. Houses may be built on
hazardous locations or land unsuitable for settlement, such as floodplains, in proximity to
industrial plants with toxic emissions or waste disposal sites, and on areas subject to
landslip. The layout of the settlement may be hazardous because of a lack of access ways
and high densities of dilapidated structures.
Insecure tenure; irregular or informal settlements: A number of definitions consider
lack of security of tenure as a central characteristic of slums, and regard lack of any
formal document entitling the occupant to occupy the land or structure as prima facie
evidence of illegality and slum occupation. Informal or unplanned settlements are often
regarded as synonymous with slums. Many definitions emphasize both informality of
occupation and the noncompliance of settlements with land-use plans. The main factors
contributing to non-compliance are settlements built on land reserved for non-residential
purposes, or which are invasions of non-urban land.
Poverty and social exclusion: Income or capability poverty is considered, with some
exceptions, as a central characteristic of slum areas. It is not seen as an inherent
characteristic of slums, but as a cause of slum conditions. Slum conditions are physical
and legitimate manifestations that create barriers to human and social development.
Furthermore, slums are areas of social exclusion that are often perceived to have high
levels of crime and other measures of social dislocation.
Minimum settlement size: Many slum definitions also require some minimum
settlement size for an area to be considered a slum, so that the slum constitutes a distinct
precinct and is not a single dwelling. Examples are the municipal slum definition of
Kolkata that requires a minimum of 700 square metres to be occupied by huts, or the
Indian census definition, which requires at least 300 people or 60 households living in a
settlement cluster.
15
3.1. Slum Parameters
4. Problems Faced by Slums
a) Vulnerability to natural and unnatural hazards:
Slums are often placed among the places vulnerable to natural disasters such
as landslides and floods.
Some slums risk man-made hazards such as toxic industries, traffic congestion and collapsing
infrastructure. Fires are another major risk to slums and its inhabitants, with streets too narrow
to allow proper and quick access to fire control trucks.
The ad hoc construction, lack of quality control on building materials used, poor maintenance,
and uncoordinated spatial design make them prone to extensive damage during both natural
and unnatural disasters.
b) Unemployment and informal economy
Due to lack of skills and education as well as competitive job markets, many slum dwellers
face high rates of unemployment. The limit of job opportunities causes many of them to
employ themselves in the informal economy, inside the slum or in developed urban areas near
the slum. This can sometimes be licit informal economy or illicit informal economy without
working contract or any social security. Some of them are seeking jobs at the same time and
some of those will eventually find jobs in formal economies after gaining some professional
skills in informal sectors.
Examples of licit informal economy include street vending, household enterprises, product
assembly and packaging, making garlands and embroideries, domestic work, shoe polishing
or repair, construction workers or manually driven logistics, and handicrafts production. In
some slums, people sort and recycle trash of different kinds (from household garbage to
electronics) for a living – selling either the odd usable goods or stripping broken goods for
parts or raw materials. Typically these licit informal economies require the poor to regularly
pay a bribe to local police and government officials.
The slum-dwellers in informal economies run many risks. The informal sector, by its very
nature, means income insecurity and lack of social mobility. There is also absence of legal
15
UN Habitat, Global Report on Human Settlements, 2003
http://www.citiesalliance.org/sites/citiesalliance.org/files/UNH_GlobalReportonHumanSettlements2003.pdf
contracts, protection of labour rights, regulations and bargaining power in informal
employments.
c) Violence
Some scholars suggest that crime is one of the main concerns in slums. Empirical data suggest
crime rates are higher in some slums than in non-slums, with slum homicides alone reducing
life expectancy of a resident in a Brazil slum by 7 years than for a resident in nearby nonslum.
Crime is not the direct resultant of block layout in many slums. Rather crime is one of the
symptoms of slum dwelling; thus slums consist of more victims than criminals. Slums have
the worst crime rates in sectors maintaining influence of illicit economy, such as drug
trafficking, prostitution, gambling and brewing. Often in such a circumstance,
multiple gangs fight for control over revenue.
Violence against women and women’s security in slums emerge as recurrent issues. Women in
slums are at greater risk of physical and sexual violence. In Nairobi slums, for example, one
fourth of all teenage girls are raped each year.
Another prevalent form of violence in slums is armed violence (gun violence), mostly existing
in African and Latin American slums. Domestic violence against men also exists in slums,
including verbal abuses and even physical violence from households.
Slum crime rate correlates with insufficient law enforcement and inadequate public policing.
In main cities of developing countries, law enforcement lags behind urban growth and slum
expansion. Lack of formal recognition by the governments also leads to few formal policing
and public justice institutions in slums.
d) Disease
Slum dwellers usually experience a high rate of disease. Diseases that have been reported in
slums include cholera, HIV/AIDS, measles, malaria, dengue, typhoid, drug resistant
tuberculosis and other epidemics.
High population densities, poor living conditions, low vaccination rates, insufficient healthrelated data and inadequate health service engender a higher rate of disease transmission in
slums than that in non-slum areas. Overcrowding leads to faster and wider spread of diseases
due to the limited space in slum housing. Poor living conditions also make slum dwellers
more vulnerable to certain diseases. Poor water quality, a manifest example, is a cause of
many major illnesses including malaria, diarrhea and trachoma.
Lack of reliable data also has a negative impact on slum dwellers’ health. A number of slum
families do not report cases or seek professional medical care, which results in insufficient
data. This might prevent appropriate allocation of health care resources in slum areas since
many countries base their health care plans on data from clinic, hospital, or national mortality
registry. Moreover, health service does not exist in most of the world’s slums. Emergency
ambulance service and urgent care is typically unavailable in slums. Health service providers
avoid servicing slums. A study shows that more than half of slum dwellers are prone to visit
private practitioners or seek self-medication with medicines available in the home.
e) Epidemics
Slums have been historically linked to epidemics. This trend has continued in modern times.
For example, the slums of West African nations such as Liberia were crippled by as well as
contributed to the outbreak and spread of Ebola in 2014. Slums are considered a major public
health concern and potential breeding grounds of drug resistant diseases for the entire city, the
nation, as well as the global community.
f) Child Malnutrition
Child malnutrition is more common in slums than in non-slum areas. In Mumbai and New
Delhi, 47% and 51% of slum children under the age of five are stunted and 35% and 36% of
them are underweighted. These children all suffer from third-degree malnutrition, the most
severe level, according to WHO standards.
The major nutritional problems in slums are protein-energy malnutrition (PEM), vitamin A
deficiency (VAD), iron deficiency anemia (IDA) and iodine deficiency disorders (IDD).
Malnutrition can sometimes lead to death among children. A report shows that malnutrition
kills 56,000 children annually in urban slums in India.
Poverty may result in inadequate food intake when people cannot afford to buy and store
enough food, which leads to malnutrition.
Another common cause is mothers’ faulty feeding practices, including
inadequate breastfeeding and wrongly preparation of food for children. A study in Bangkok
slums shows that around 64% of the mothers sometimes fed their children instant food instead
of a normal meal. And about 70% of the mothers did not provide their children three meals
every day. Mothers’ lack of education leads to their faulty feeding practices. Many mothers in
slums don’t have knowledge on food nutrition for children. Maternal employment also
influences children's nutritional status. For the mothers who work outside, their children are
disposed to be malnourished. These children are likely to be neglected by their mothers or
sometimes not carefully looked after by their female relatives. 16
5. Countermeasures
Recent years have seen a dramatic growth in the number of slums as urban populations have
increased in developing countries. Nearly a billion people worldwide live in slums, and some
project the figure may grow to 2 billion by 2030, if governments and global community
ignore slums and continue current urban policies. United Nations Habitat group believes
change is possible. To achieve the goal of “cities without slums”, claims UN, governments
must undertake vigorous urban planning, city management, infrastructure development, slum
16
Wikipedia, Slum,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slum
upgrading and poverty reduction.
The process of improving the existing conditions of slums is known as the slum clearness
and the main four objects of taking up slums clearance programmers can be enumerated as
follows:

To bring down the disparity in living standards of the people of various people classes

To prevent the occurrence of epidemics in the town or city

To provide the absolute basic minimum standards of essential amenities for the healthy
living

To remove the ugly spots or slums from the map of town or city
Following are two methods by which slum clearance programmers can be affected:

Complete Removal Method: In this method the ill constructed houses are
demolished and only those which are really good are retained the open spaces left are
used for widening of roads, providing recreation grounds or building new houses of
approves standards. For the selection of the slums areas for clearance as against
improvement, the following two important factors should be considered: the degree of
public
health hazards involved and the economic potential of the land.

Improvement Method: If the houses are fairly good certain steps such as
improvement of the streets system filling up of low ground modification of drainage
arrangement removal of obstructing structure etc. may be taken up to implement slum
clearance scheme. 17
5.1. Possible Scheme of Implementation Process
6. Sustainable Urban Development
Since sustainable urban development aims at making a development with sustainability that
"meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to
meet their own needs in an urban base, providing the urban sustainability should be our key
point throughout eradicating the urban poverty. Only if we achieve a sustainable urban
development, we will be able to exterminate the issue of slums.
17
Slum Clearance http://engineeringlectures.com/slum-clearance
7. Major Parties Involved
a.
India
India is the second most populous country in the world with an estimated 1.2 billion people
and the third largest economy by GDP. India was classified as a (lower) middle-income
country by the World Bank in 2012. However, despite economic growth and self-sufficiency
in food grains production, high levels of poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition persist in
India. An estimated 32.7 percent of the Indian population lives on less than US$ 1.25 per day.
b.
Indonesia
Many Indonesians who have climbed out of poverty remain just above the line. In 2013,
around 28 million Indonesians lived with less than IDR 293,000 (roughly $25) a month. An
additional 68 million made do with not much more. A quarter of Indonesians suffer from
poverty at least once in a three year period.
c.
Bangladesh
Bangladesh faces high poverty rates, which are exacerbated by frequent natural disasters and
high population density. The proportion of the population living under the poverty line came
down from 49 percent in 2000 to 31.5 percent in 2010 as a result of consistent economic and
remittance growth. However, due to high overall population, the absolute number of people
living in poverty remains high, with 48 million people living below the poverty line (27
million below the lower poverty line) and high levels of inequality persisting.
d.
Turkey
The most outstanding achievement of Turkey in the past years in attaining the Millennium
Development Goals has been the reduction of the levels of poverty. Fortunately Turkey does
not face a hunger problem but rather a poverty-related malnutrition.
e.
Burundi
Between 1994 and 2006, poverty increased from 48 per cent to 67 per cent of the population
because of the Burundi’s civil war.
Only 28 percent of the population is food-secure and as many as 58 percent are chronically
malnourished. Food security for the majority of Burundians has not improved in recent years,
despite a gradual return to peace.
8. Related Organizations
a. World Health Organization (WHO)
The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations which
was established on 7 April 1948 in Geneva, Switzerland. Organization is concerned
with international public health.
It is responsible for providing leadership on global health matters, shaping the health
research agenda, setting norms and standards, articulating evidence-based policy
options, providing technical support to countries and monitoring and assessing health
trends.
b. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
Food and Agriculture Organization is an agency of the UN which leads international
efforts to defeat hunger. Whether a developed or developing country, FAO acts as a
neutral forum which all of the nations meet equally to negotiate.
FAO carries out projects to support member states in strengthening their capacity to
plan social protection programs which will effectively reduce income and food
insecurity among rural populations while providing inducements to the rural economy.
c. United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
UNICEF was created on 11 December 1946 by the UN General Assembly with a
distinct purpose in mind: to work with others to overcome the obstacles that poverty,
violence, disease and discrimination place in a child’s path. We advocate for measures
to give children the best start in life, because proper care at the youngest age forms the
strongest foundation for a person’s future.
Currently, UNICEF carries out projects on reducing poverty starting with children and
assisting in water and sanitation improvement.
d. World Food Programme
The World Food Programme is the food assistance branch of the UN and the world's
largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide and promoting food security.
Programme is voluntarily funded. On average, the WFP provides food to 90 million
people per year, of whom 58 million are children.
e. United Nations Development Programme
United Nations Development Programme is the global development network of the
UN. UNDP works in more than 170 countries and territories, helping to achieve the
eradication of poverty, and the reduction of inequalities and exclusion.
f.
United Nations Human Settlements Programme
On 1 January 1975, the UN General Assembly established the United Nations Habitat and
Human Settlements Foundation (UNHHSF), the first official UN body dedicated to
urbanization. It’s task was to assist national programmes relating to human settlements
through the provision of capital and technical assistance, particularly in developing
countries.
8. Previous Attempts at Solving the Issue
Millenium Development Goals (Goal 1)
a)
What is Millennium Development Goals?
In September 2000, the largest gathering of world leaders in history postulated the United
Nations Millennium Declaration which aims to reduce the time-bound targets like eradicating
poverty and promoting gender equality by the time of 2015. MDG’s are consists of 8 goals
and each one of them focuses on the major problems.
b)
Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger
1.2
billion still live in extreme poverty, even though poverty rates have been halved
between 1990 and 2010 and the MDG target has been met.
Participatory Slum Upgrading Programme (PSUP)
The Participatory Slum Upgrading Programme (PSUP) is an initiative of the Africa,
Caribbean and Pacific Secretariat, funded by the European Commission and implemented by
UN-Habitat. The programme’s purpose is to strengthen the capacity of local, central, and
regional institutions and key stakeholders in settlement and slum improvement through the
use of good governance and management approaches, pilot projects, and contributing, where
needed, to policy development and the implementation of institutional, legislative, financial,
and normative and implementation frameworks.
End Poverty 2015 Millennium Campaign
End Poverty 2015 Millennium Campaign was established in 2002 by the United Nations
Secretary-General Kofi Annan in order to support citizen participation in the achieving the
Millennium Development Goals, adopted by 189 world leaders from rich and poor countries,
as part of the Millennium Declaration which was signed in 2000.
2015 Time for Global Action
2015 presents a historic and unprecedented opportunity to bring the countries and citizens of
the world together to decide and embark on new paths to improve the lives of people
everywhere. These decisions will determine the global course of action to end poverty,
promote prosperity and well-being for all, protect the environment and address climate
change. In 2015, countries have the opportunity to adopt a new sustainable development
agenda and reach a global agreement on climate change. The actions taken in 2015 are
expected to result in new sustainable development goals that build on the eight Millennium
Development Goals. The UN is working with governments, civil society and other partners to
build on the momentum generated by the MDGs and carry on with an ambitious post-2015
development agenda. Explore this site to find out more about the efforts of the UN and its
partners to build a better world.
A.
CONCLUSION
The points that a resolution should cover as follows:

Governments should be able to measure the poverty in order to take measures to
minimize its effects on society. Moreover, governments should analyze the poverty in both
monetary and non-monetary dimensions.

Governments should provide an access to improved water; an access to improved
sanitation facilities; a sufficient living area, not overcrowded;
the structural quality/durability of dwellings; the security of tenure to their all citizens.

Healthcare services should be improved for the slum dwellers, since their lifestyle
causes lots of diseases and epidemics.

Slum clearance programmes should be implemented throughout two methods:
complete removal method and improvement method. If it is needed, city plan should be
renovated.

Governments should provide new job opportunities to slum dwellers with the support
of private sector. Government should not allow informal economy sectors to be in a progress.

Governments should cooperate with the United Nations Bodies and both national and
international organizations to eradicate the urban poverty.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) should be examined; unachieved goals should
be taken into consideration.

Requirements of sustainable urban development should be met by the governments.
Economic & Social Council
Under Secretary General
Öykü Aktaş
Kabataş Erkek High School
aktasoykuu@gmail.com
Academic Assistant
Selin Özlem Değirmen
ISTEK Acıbadem High School
selindegirmen@gmail.com