UNITED NATIONS UC3MUN ‘16 ECONOMIC AND …uc3mun.anudi.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/ECOSOC.pdf · II. Members, Powers and Functions of the Council .....4 III. TOPIC A: Peacebuilding

UC3MUN ‘16

Study guide of the topics

[TOPIC A]

[TOPIC B]

of the [full committee name]

[NAME OF CHAIR] & [NAME OF COCHAIR]

TOPIC A: Peacebuilding and Post-Conflict Recovery TOPIC B: Income Inequality Curbing Global Prosperity

ECOSOC UNITED NATIONS ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL

UC3MUN 2016 | STUDY GUIDE

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INDEX INDEX ............................................................................................................................ 2

I. Introduction / Welcome Letter ................................................................................ 3

II. Members, Powers and Functions of the Council .................................................. 4

III. TOPIC A: Peacebuilding and Post-Conflict Recovery ........................................ 6 a. Background/History .................................................................................................... 6 b. Main measures already adopted ............................................................................ 7 c. Actors involved ........................................................................................................... 9 d. Possible solutions/measures to be adopted ......................................................... 10 e. Questions or specific issues that a resolution should cover ................................. 11 f. Sources to find out more about this topic ................................................................. 11

IV. TOPIC B: Income Inequality Curbing Global Prosperity ................................... 13 a. Background/History .................................................................................................. 13 b. Main measures already adopted .......................................................................... 14 c. Actors involved ......................................................................................................... 14 d. Possible solutions / measures to be adopted ....................................................... 15 e. Questions or specific issues that a resolution should cover ................................. 16 f. Sources to find out more about this topic ................................................................. 17

V. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND REMINDERS ..................................................... 18

VI. ANNEX I ................................................................................................................. 19

SAMPLE POSITION PAPER ........................................................................................... 19


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I. INTRODUCTION / WELCOME LETTER Distinguished delegates, As your Chairs for the Economic and Social Council, we would like to welcome you to the 2016 Edition of UC3MUN and to congratulate you for being part of something great. During the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th March, this Council will meet to discuss two topics of an utmost importance: Peacebuilding and Post-Conflict Recovery and Income Inequality Curbing Global Prosperity. On one hand, our duty is to guide you for the preparation of UC3MUN 2016 and, during the Conference, to guide the debate on its good behalf. To fulfil our first duty, we are letting you this Report that will guide you in the preparation of the Conference and give you the main points to investigate and develop during the Sessions. On the other hand, we remind you that is your duty to elaborate a Position Paper that reflects what your country stands for in both topics and this might be close to reality. In order to complete this duty, you must investigate and document yourself with official sources. Furthermore, you must know or study the Rules of Procedure that apply to this Conference and that the Chair of this Council will follow and make follow so as to the proper development of this Sessions that has a clear goal which is to find solutions both of our topics. With the final purpose of having a good communication between the Chairs and you, delegates, we have created a Facebook Group by the name ECOSOC UC3MUN16 for which you must apply to get inside and you should do so as soon as possible. The Rules of Procedure will apply in this group especially those articles referring to basic protocol and respect. Finally, we are here in case you have any doubt or suggestion and we encourage you to prepare this Conference the best you can in order to have a successful week that you, without the shadow of a doubt, will always remember. Yours sincerely, Álvaro Rodríguez Poblete Alexandre Picón


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II. MEMBERS, POWERS AND FUNCTIONS OF THE COUNCIL Making ECOSOC a truly meaningful organ that has the capacity to make a difference calls for new approach. This is so especially now, during times of hardened economic uncertainty that ECOSOC`s role and relevance is ever- increasing. H.E. Mr. Milos ̌ Koterec President, ECOSOC 2012 The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) was established under the United Nations Charter as the principal organ to coordinate economic, social, and related work of the 14 UN specialized agencies, functional commissions and five regional commissions. The Council also receives reports from 11 UN funds and programmes. ECOSOC serves as the central forum for discussing international economic and social issues, and for formulating policy recommendations addressed to Member States and the United Nations system. It is responsible for:

▪ promoting higher standards of living, full employment, and economic and social progress;

▪ identifying solutions to international economic, social and health problems;

▪ facilitating international cultural and educational cooperation; and ▪ encouraging universal respect for human rights and fundamental

freedoms. It has the power to make or initiate studies and reports on these issues. It also has the power to assist the preparations and organization of major international conferences in the economic and social and related fields and to facilitate a coordinated follow-up to these conferences. With its broad mandate, the Council's purview extends to over 70 per cent of the human and financial resources of the entire UN system. The Council meets in alternating years at UN Headquarters or at the UN Office in Geneva.1 The ECOSOC serves as the central forum for discussing international economic and social issues, and for formulating policy recommendations addressed to member states and the United Nations system. A number of non-governmental organizations have been granted consultative status to the Council to participate in the work of the United Nations.2

1 UNEP New York Office 2 UN ECOSOC Official Web Site


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The Council has 65 member states out of the 193 UN member states, which are elected by the United Nations General Assembly for overlapping three-year terms. Seats on the Council are based on geographical representation with 18 allocated to African states, 13 to Asian states, 8 to East European states, 13 to Latin American and Caribbean states and 13 to West European and other states.3.

3 Wikipedia about ECOSOC


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III. TOPIC A: PEACEBUILDING AND POST-CONFLICT RECOVERY The ECOSOC has been playing an important role in the creation of mechanisms to address the problems that countries that were recently in conflict faced and helping these countries emerging from conflict to preserve human security. In addition, thus this experience, the United Nations has developed a branch for peacebuilding that is increasing its importance in reducing a country’s risk of lapsing (or relapsing) into a conflict. Peacebuilding strength national capacities for conflict management in order to lay the foundations for sustainable peace and development. Building lasting peace in war-torn societies is among the most daunting of challenges for global peace and security. Peacebuilding requires sustained international support for national efforts across the broadest range of activities – monitoring ceasefires; demobilizing and reintegrating combatants; assisting the return of refugees and displaced persons; helping organize and monitor elections of a new government; supporting justice and security sector reform; enhancing human rights protections and fostering reconciliation after past atrocities.4 a. Background/History

The term "peacebuilding" first emerged in 1970s through the work of Johan Galtung who called for the creation of peacebuilding structures to promote sustainable peace by addressing the "root causes" of violent conflict and supporting indigenous capacities for peace management and conflict resolution. Since then, it has covered a multidimensional exercise and tasks ranging from the disarming of warring factions to the rebuilding of political, economic, judicial and civil society institutions.5 In 1992, Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali exposed his report with the tittle An Agenda for Peace that recognizes the limitations of peacekeeping. The absence of war and military conflicts amongst States does not in itself ensure international peace and security. The non-military sources of instability in the economic, social, humanitarian and ecological fields have become threats to peace and security. The United Nations membership as a whole, working through the appropriate bodies, needs to give the highest priority to the solution of these matters. 6 The United Nations has been at the centre of expanding international peacebuilding efforts, from the verification of peace agreements in southern Africa, Central America and Cambodia in the 1990s, to subsequent efforts to consolidate peace and strengthen states in the Balkans, Timor-Leste, and West Africa, to contemporary operations in Afghanistan, Haiti and Sudan.

4 UN Offical Web Site DESA Office for ECOSOC Support and Coordination 5 UN Peacebuilding Support Office 6 UN Department of Public Information, Yearbook of the United Nations 1992


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b. Main measures already adopted

I. By the United Nations Recognizing that the United Nations needs to better anticipate and respond to the challenges of peacebuilding, the 2005 World Summit approved the creation of a new Peacebuilding Commission. In the resolutions establishing the Peacebuilding Commission, resolution 60/180 and resolution 1645 (2005), the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council mandated it to bring together all relevant actors to advise on the proposed integrated strategies for post conflict peacebuilding and recovery; to marshal resources and help ensure predictable financing for these activities; and to develop best practices in collaboration with political, security, humanitarian and development actors. The resolutions also identify the need for the Commission to extend the period of international attention on post-conflict countries and where necessary, highlight any gaps which threaten to undermine peacebuilding. The General Assembly and Security Council resolutions establishing the Peacebuilding Commission also provided for the establishment of a Peacebuilding Fund and Peacebuilding Support Office

II. By this Council In 2002, the Council established the ECOSOC Ad Hoc Advisory Groups to help define long-term programmes of support for countries emerging from conflict and created two groups on Guinea-Bissau (created in October 2002) and on Burundi (created in July 2003). While the mandates of the two Groups have been terminated as the peacebuilding challenges of these countries are now being addressed by the Peacebuilding commission (PBC), the Council retains its role in providing advice to Haiti on a long-term development strategy to promote socio-economic recovery and stability through the Ad Hoc Advisory Group on Haiti. The first Advisory Group on Haiti was created in response to a request by the Security Council, using Article 65 of the United Nations Charter to request advice from ECOSOC. The Council also recently discussed the role of the United Nations and the international community in supporting capacity of South Sudan. In its resolution 2011/43, the Council invites, in particular, the governing of the United Nations funds and programmes to pay particular attention to the situation in South Sudan and to the coordination of their activities in the country. In this context, ECOSOC requested the Secretary-General to report to the Council, at its substantive session of 2012, on how the United Nations development system is implementing integrated, coherent and coordinated support to South Sudan, consistent with national priorities.


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In its decision 2012/250, the Council took note of the report of the Secretary-General on the implementation of integrated, coherent and coordinated support to South Sudan and requested that another report on the subject be submitted for the Council’s consideration at its substantive session of 2013. The Council invited the Chair of the Peacebuilding Commission to continue to inform it of the economic and social challenges of peacebuilding in the African countries on the Commission’s agenda. The General Assembly in its resolutions 60/180 and 61/16 affirmed the importance of interaction between the Economic and Social Council and the Peacebuilding Commission and underlined the value of the experience of ECOSOC in the area of post-conflict peacebuilding.

III. Peacekeepers UN Peacekeepers provide security and the political and peacebuilding support to help countries make the difficult, early transition from conflict to peace. UN Peacekeeping is guided by three basic principles:

▪ Consent of the parties; ▪ Impartiality; ▪ Non-use of force except in self-defence and defence of the mandate.7

Peacekeeping is flexible and over the past two decades has been deployed in many configurations. There are currently 16 UN peacekeeping operations deployed on four continents. Today's multidimensional peacekeeping operations are called upon not only to maintain peace and security, but also to facilitate the political process, protect civilians, assist in the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of former combatants; support the organization of elections, protect and promote human rights and assist in restoring the rule of law. Some of the missions:

a) UNDOF8: From early March 1974, the situation in the Israel-Syria sector became increasingly unstable, and firing intensified. The United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) was established on 31 May 1974 by Security Council resolution 350 (1974), following the agreed disengagement of the Israeli and

7 United Nations Peacekeeping 8 UNDOF: United Nations Disengagement Observer Force


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Syrian forces in the Golan. Since then, UNDOF has remained in the area to maintain the ceasefire between the Israeli and Syrian forces and to supervise the implementation of the disengagement agreement.

b) UNTSO9: Set up in May 1948, UNTSO was the first ever peacekeeping operation established by the United Nations. Since then, UNTSO military observers have remained in the Middle East to monitor ceasefires, supervise armistice agreements, prevent isolated incidents from escalating and assist other UN peacekeeping operations in the region to fulfill their respective mandates. UNTSO personnel have also been available at short notice to form the nucleus of some other peacekeeping operations worldwide. The availability of UNTSO's military observers for almost immediate deployment after the Security Council had acted to create a new mission has been an enormous contributory factor to the early deployment and the success of those operations.

c) UNIFIL10: Originally, UNIFIL was created by the Security Council in March 1978 to

confirm Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, restore international peace and security and assist the Lebanese Government in restoring its effective authority in the area. The mandate had to be adjusted twice, due to the developments in 1982 and 2000. Following the July/August 2006 crisis, the Council enhanced the Force and decided that in addition to the original mandate, it would, among other things, monitor the cessation of hostilities; accompany and support the Lebanese armed forces as they deploy throughout the south of Lebanon; and extend its assistance to help ensure humanitarian access to civilian populations and the voluntary and safe return of displaced persons.

d) UNAMID11: The African Union/UN Hybrid operation in Darfur, referred to by its

acronym UNAMID, was established on 31 July 2007 with the adoption of Security Council resolution 1769. UNAMID has the protection of civilians as its core mandate, but is also tasked with contributing to security for humanitarian assistance, monitoring and verifying implementation of agreements, assisting an inclusive political process, contributing to the promotion of human rights and the rule of law, and monitoring and reporting on the situation along the borders with Chad and the Central African Republic (CAR).

c. Actors involved

Humanitarian and development agencies may be in a country before, during and after the conflict. Once on the ground and when the conflict ends, these actors can

9 UNTSO United Nations Truce Supervision Organization 10 UNIFIL United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon 11 UNAMID African Union/ United Nations Hybrid operation in Darfur


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lay the important foundations for the peacebuilding process (by providing early peace dividends). UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) is an example by a statement, "Through direct contact with the population, creative ideas, flexibility, the possibility of reaching places with difficult access to public policy, and a great commitment to service, NGOs may contribute to public policy". A system like checks and balances can be provided by civil society in order to hold governments accountable for their policies, activities and expenditures. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs), can support economic recovery efforts in numerous ways. Peacekeeping operations increasingly play a significant role as early peacebuilders. The mandates of multi-dimensional operations include disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR), security sector reform (SSR) and support to electoral processes. DPA Special Political Missions and integrated peacebuilding missions are also given the mandate to cover a wide range of peacebuilding tasks. Civil society plays critical roles in restoring peace and economic recovery in both local and international areas. Following war process, confidence in the government may be especially low thus, while the government is working to restore legitimacy and function, other actors may take a role prominently in economic recovery efforts. d. Possible solutions/measures to be adopted

During the last 10 years, United Nations has found solutions to peacekeeping and post-conflict recovery. In fact, these solutions have been working from time to time depending on the situation. Peacekeeping has been developing during this time but post conflict recovery didn’t do so, as we can see, after the conflict countries don’t make it to became develop countries or to restructure their society. Even if the recovery should take time, solutions to make this recovery faster should be found. As a matter of fact, most of the problems that hinders the recovery is the bad distribution of the economic aids and the corruption that actual measures doesn’t stop. This Council and United Nations had concentrate its efforts in ensuring peacekeeping, but for the purpose of maintenance of these peace, a stronger post-conflict recovery measures should be taken. The non persistence on economic developing and society growth will make one way or another the peacekeeping missions fail, because this Council shouldn’t forget that the goal of peacekeeping missions is not to stay forever but to help the country to achieve permanent peace and a good recovery.


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Taking this into account, post-conflict situations inherit a legacy of very poor economic policies and governance. They are by no means the only countries with such problems but they differ from ”fragile states” at peace, in that the political context for reform is more favourable. If the political context for reform is unusually favourable but the capacity to implement reform is unusually limited, then it is particularly important to prioritize reform correctly. In the typical post-conflict situation, a very wide range of policies are deficient, but they cannot all be reformed at once. I take four aspects of the real economy that should make policy distinctive. For these purpose, possible solutions should face: reconstructing infrastructure, managing commodity booms (post conflict situations are opportunities for commodity export booms) and managing construction booms, among others. It is significant that the economic growth for post conflict countries ensures equality for the population and ensures the non proliferation of mafias and corruption. e. Questions or specific issues that a resolution should cover

First, a resolution should cover a thought about the measures that have been already made in order to analyse if this measures are finding or not a good path towards a post conflict recovery and peacebuilding. Also, if do so, this resolution should sustain the maintenance of support to the different missions that are taking place right now. Second, a resolution should focus on finding a common solution that this Council should empower in United Nations to ensure the post-conflict recovery of the countries. This solution should hold two branches, one for the economic recovery and other for society recovery. It is truly important that both branches are developed cause there’s no place for recovery without one of them. Third, political solutions to ensure of democracy should be a specific issue in order to assure the future of the country. Fighting corruption, in anyway should be one of the main goals of this Council. If this Council failed in this, the post conflict recovery would not be assure and neither the peacekeeping. Finally, new issues or questions included in the resolution will be well valued by the Chair of this Council.

f. Sources to find out more about this topic

United Nations:

- Charter of United Nations (Link) - ECOSOC (Link) - Summary of this Council (Link) - United Nations Environment Programme (Link) - Current Peacekeeping Operations (Link) - Past Peacekeeping operations (Link)


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- Peacebuilding in the aftermath of conflict, 23 September 2014 (Link) - 60/180. The Peacebuilding Commission, Resolution adopted by the General

Assembly (Link) - Resolution 1645 (2005), Adopted by the Security Council (Link) - Report of the Peacebuilding Commission on its second session, (Link)

International Organizations:

- Post-Conflict Recovery and Peacebuilding by World Development Report (Link) - Time to involve women in post-conflict rebuilding By Marianne Mollmann, Senior

Policy Advisor at Amnesty International (Link) Other:

- Collier, P., 2007, 'Post-Conflict Recovery: How Should Policies be Distinctive?', Centre for the Study of African Economies, Department of Economics, University of Oxford? (Link)

- Post-Conflict Economic Recovery Enabling Local Ingenuity UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME (Link)

- Post-Conflict Development, International Rescue Committee (Link)


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IV. TOPIC B: INCOME INEQUALITY CURBING GLOBAL PROSPERITY The question of economic inequality has been neglected from the social and economic analysis since a long time ago. However, in recent years, economists, political scientists and policymakers have started to pay more attention to the fact that it could negatively affect growth and its sustainability. As it is stated by scholars, many adverse consequences of inequality affect the well-being of both of those at the top of the income distribution and those at the bottom. Specifically, inequality leads to a less stable, less efficient economic system that slows down economic growth and blocks the participation of all members of society in the labour market (Stiglitz, 2012). It also limits opportunities for social mobility and causes irregular access to health and education and, therefore, to the intergenerational transmission of social opportunities. That favours the creation of poverty traps, wasting human potential, and resulting in less dynamic societies. Income inequality also increases the vulnerability of societies to economic crises and prolongs the time it takes to recover from such crises. These varied impacts can combine to generate potent sources of social tension, fertile ground for political and civil unrest, instability and heightened human insecurity. Besides, while income inequality across countries has receded somewhat in recent years, it has risen within many countries, which poses new challenges both at national and international level. a. Background/History

International income inequality (measured through the weighted Gini) increased quite sharply between 1980 and 2000. Several factors played a role in this, particularly declining incomes in Latin America during the ‘lost decade’ of the 1980s and the prolonged economic implosion of countries in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as the economic collapse of former soviets economies in the late 1980s and 1990s. However, since about 2000, the decline in international inequality has been observable even without the effect of the Chinese economy. Stronger economic growth in all three major developing regions (Asia, Africa and Latin America) has contributed to this trend.


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Despite this recent improvement, international inequality remains very high – in fact, excluding China, the Gini coefficients of international inequality were higher in 2010 than they had been in 1980. Only in OECD countries, the gap between rich and poor is at its highest level in the last 30 years. Today, the richest 10% of the population in the OECD area earn 9.5 times more than the poorest 10%. By contrast, in the 1980s the ratio stood at 7:1. This long-term trend increase in income inequality has contributed to curb economic growth significantly. The global financial and economic crisis and its aftermath have added urgency to the need to address inequalities and their consequences. Draconian fiscal austerity programmes still dominate attempts to reduce sovereign debt in many developed countries, and a growing number of developing countries are cutting public expenditure. Popular discontent has grown and trust in governments is dwindling, even in countries with consolidated democracies. b. Main measures already adopted

The Millennium Development Goals have focused the actions to reduce inequality and poverty in improving the school-attendance of children and healthcare, straying from the objective of pursuing high growth rates. The main problem is that the lowest-income countries haven’t grown, and that has been the main concern of the international economic development organizations. Without economic growth it is not possible to eliminate world poverty and inequality, and so every effort should be put on that fact. For example, even though Brazil continues to suffer from record levels of income inequality, recent economic growth has benefited the poor, due in part to improvements in education, labour market conditions, and the expansion of social assistance programmes. In contrast, the unprecedented growth enjoyed by China and, to a lesser extent, India, has been accompanied by rising inequality. Income inequality has also increased in most developed countries –instead of remaining stable or declining– although national experiences have varied significantly across the developed world, as well. c. Actors involved

While examining this question, the analysis should be divided in groups of countries. A first group would be formed by low income countries, regions that doesn’t have high growth rates and have


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not started the path of development yet. In those countries inequality is generally raising. A second group of countries is composed of the so called emerging economies; countries that have started to develop many years ago and are nowadays growing fast. Inequality in those countries follows different trends. Different ways of tackling this topic are been carried out, with different results. Lastly, the third group is formed by high income countries, occidental and most developed economies, where in recent years and due to the global financial crisis inequality is rising. d. Possible solutions / measures to be adopted

OECD research show that when income inequality rises, economic growth falls. One reason is that poorer members of society are less able to invest in their education. Tackling inequality can make our societies fairer and our economies stronger. This can be made through renewed educational policies in order to guarantee access to the majority of the population. That would tackle inequality of opportunities and would contribute to improve social mobility. Besides, other means comprise the use of tax system and redistribution policies. Providing that they are well designed and implemented, undertaking inequality through tax and transfer policies will not harm growth. In particular, redistribution efforts should focus on families with children and youth, as this is where key decisions on education investment are made. According to the empirical literature, social transfers have had a larger redistributive impact than taxes. Wang and Caminada (2011) estimated that social transfers accounted for 85 per cent of the observed reduction in inequality while taxes explained 15 per cent of such a reduction. In general, top tax rates, which in many countries were over 80% in the 1970s, have been reduced dramatically and there is room for more progressive tax to be restored. Dealing with tax havens and other methods used by rich individuals and large companies to avoid tax is crucial; the amount of money lost by developing countries to tax havens exceeds all international development aid. This not only increases global inequality but also means that a higher proportion of public expenditure has to be funded by tax payers in lower income groups. In many countries taxation has ceased to be significantly redistributive. Redistribution should be accomplished not only by cash transfers but also by increasing access to public services, such as high-quality education, training and healthcare, constitute long-term social investment to create greater equality of opportunities in the long run. Policy also needs to confront the historical legacy of underinvestment by low income groups in formal education.


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Forms of economic democracy, such as employee ownership, employee representation on boards, employee share ownership, mutuals and cooperatives tend to reduce the scale of income inequality and help equality to become more embedded in a society – these are more long-lasting cultural changes than can be achieved through tweaks to the tax code. These forms of business institutions also provide a more stable basis for community life and perform well in ethical terms. One of the most cited economist of the last years, Thomas Piketty, has focused his career in studying how inequality could affect economic growth and social wellbeing. For him, inequality is a structural trend in the modern capitalist societies, derived from an economy based on hereditary incomes. He proposes a drastic fiscal reform with high marginal tax rates for the top income-earners, but there is no real consensus among developed countries to apply such policy. Policymakers need to be concerned about the bottom 40% of income earners. This includes not only the lowest percentile, but also the vulnerable lower-middle classes at risk of failing to benefit from and contribute to the recovery and future growth. e. Questions or specific issues that a resolution should cover

First of all, a resolution should recall previous actions on combating inequality and poverty developed by the United Nations and other multilateral organizations. Delegates might carry out a little research on this topic in order to know the relevant efforts made by those international bodies.

Besides, some brief reference to the state of the question in the world has to be presented. Delegates may collect how inequality tackles economic growth and how it affects prosperity in the different regions, alongside a mention to the expectations and the future implications of the present levels of inequality measured in the World.

In third place, they have to focus their attention on the principal problems caused by the rising of inequality both at national and international level. They may also stablish the links between these concrete problems and the possible solutions or measures to deal with them. It is important to take into account in this point that the United Nations Economic and Social Council cannot implement or stablish direct economic or political measures, nor decide on mandatory financial transfers. The objective is to encourage countries to develop those policies, not to impose them.

Finally, the resolution may include some appeals to other UN bodies in order to continue revising the actions and fostering investigation and reporting on this topic. Other multilateral organizations concerned, such as the IMF, the World Bank or the OECD, should also be invited to continue researching and contributing to tackle global inequality.


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f. Sources to find out more about this topic

International Organizations

- United Nations Economic and Social Council (Link) - United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (Link) - International Monetary Fund – IMF’s Work on Income Inequality (Link) - Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development – Topic: Inequality

(Link) - World Bank – Research – Poverty and Inequality (Link)

Research Documents

- OECD, Does income inequality hurt economic growth? in: Focus on inequality and growth, December 2014. (Link)

- United Nations, Inequality Matters, Report of the World Social Situation 2013, New York, 2013, ST/ESA/345. (Link)

- IMF, Causes and Consequences of Income Inequality: A Global Perspective, 2015. (Link)

- World Bank, Ending Poverty and Sharing Prosperity, Global Monitoring Report 2014/2015 (Link)

Economic Literature - Pickett, K., Reducing Inequality: An Essential Step For Development And

Wellbeing, 2014. (Link) - Wang, C. & Caminada, K., Disentangling Income Inequality and the

Redistributive Effect of Social Transfers and Taxes in 36 LIS Countries, 2011. (Link) - Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality (Link) - Other authors such as Joseph Stiglitz, Thomas Piketty, Atkinson, Daniel Cohen or

Angus Deaton have published some interesting research on the topic of income inequality and economic growth.

Other sources - The Gini Index is used to measure income inequality. Some information about

the Gini coefficient for many countries for the period 1985-2015 can be found in the World Bank database. (Link)

- Economic press (The Economist, Expansión, Financial Times…)


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V. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND REMINDERS Regarding preparation for this Conference, that should be deeper than what is in this guide, it’s on your duty to prepare a Position Paper that you will need to send to the Chair before the Conference starts. For that we explain here how to elaborate a Position Paper and you will find an example of one at the Annex I. A Position Paper is a document in which is written the official position of the country you are representing in the topic that you are discussing. In this case, there are two topics so it the Position Paper should include both of them. The document should include the position of the country that has been assigned to you, how this Country deals with the topic and which are their future intentions. You should also include who have you being working with in the past to solve this country, meaning other countries or other non governmental organizations. This document is useful to inform the rest of the delegates of your position, as well as they will do informing you. The objective is to facilitate the preparation to all the delegates. This is essential in order to have, during the Conference, fruitful debates understanding better the policies of each state and, in addition, to make alliances. It is important that you elaborate your Position Paper with clear and concise information about the politics of the Country you are representing for the topics proposed. Therefore, a page for each topic will be enough. Moreover, you should read in detail the Rules of Procedure, especially the articles applying to the dress code of this Model United Nations: Delegates attire must be at all moments appropriate to the relevance of the event and the role represented. Therefore, compliance with the so-called Western Business Attire is mandatory. • Female: full suit or blazer, with blouse or dress or formal shoe. No jeans or sneakers

are acceptable. Cocktail dresses will neither be accepted. • Male: full suit or blazer and formal trousers (no jeans accepted), shirt, tie or bow-tie,

and formal shoes. Again neither sneakers nor cocktail clothes will be accepted. Despite the above mentioned provisions, delegates shall wear, at their discretion, clothes, badges, accessories and typical dresses of the countries they represent, if they are appropriate for the occasion according to the protocol of such countries. Finally, you should take a look on the Conference Policies that you can find at the official website. (Link)


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VI. ANNEX I SAMPLE POSITION PAPER FRENCH REPUBLIC Committee: ECOSOC12 Delegation: French Republic Delegates: Álvaro Gómez del Valle Ruiz and Álvaro Rodríguez Poblete General information:13 France today is one of the most modern countries in the world and is a leader among European nations. It plays an influential global role as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, NATO, the G-8, the G-20, the EU and other multilateral organizations. France rejoined NATO's integrated military command structure in 2009, reversing de Gaulle's 1966 decision to take French forces out of NATO. Since 1958, it has constructed a hybrid presidential-parliamentary governing system resistant to the instabilities experienced in earlier, more purely parliamentary administrations. In recent decades, its reconciliation and cooperation with Germany have proved central to the economic integration of Europe, including the introduction of a common currency, the euro, in January 1999. In the early 21st century, five French overseas entities - French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mayotte, and Reunion - became French regions and were made part of France proper. The French economy is diversified across all sectors. The government has partially or fully privatized many large companies, including Air France, France Telecom, Renault, and Thales. However, the government maintains a strong presence in some sectors, particularly power, public transport, and defense industries. With at least 79 million foreign tourists per year, France is the most visited country in the world and maintains the third largest income in the world from tourism. France's leaders remain committed to a capitalism in which they maintain social equity by means of laws, tax policies, and social spending that reduce income disparity and the impact of free markets on public health and welfare. France's real GDP contracted 2.6% in 2009, but recovered somewhat in 2010 and 2011, before stagnating in 2012. The unemployment rate increased from 7.4% in 2008 to 10.3% in 2012. Youth unemployment shot up to 24.2% during the third quarter of 2012 in metropolitan France. Lower-than-expected growth and high unemployment costs have strained France's public finances. The budget deficit rose sharply from 3.4% of GDP in 2008 to 7.5% of GDP in 2009 before improving to 4.8% of GDP in 2012, while France's public debt rose from 68% of GDP to 90% over the same period. Under President SARKOZY, Paris implemented some austerity measures to bring the budget deficit under the 3% euro-zone ceiling by 2013 and to

12 Position Paper for the UC3MUN 2014 ECOSOC 13 CIA The World Factbook


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highlight France's commitment to fiscal discipline at a time of intense financial market scrutiny of euro-zone debt. Socialist Party candidate Francois HOLLANDE won the May 2012 presidential election, after advocating pro-growth economic policies, the separation of banks' traditional deposit taking and lending activities from more speculative businesses, increasing the top corporate and personal tax rates, and hiring an additional 60,000 teachers during his five-year term. The government's attempt to introduce a 75% wealth tax on income over one million euros for two years was struck down by the French Constitutional Council in December 2012 because it applied to individuals rather than households. France ratified the EU fiscal stability treaty in October 2012 and HOLLANDE's government has maintained France's commitment to meeting the budget deficit target of 3% of GDP during 2013 even amid signs that economic growth will be lower than the government's forecast of 0.8%. Despite stagnant growth and fiscal challenges, France's borrowing costs declined during the second half of 2012 to euro-era lows. Agenda Issue: Addressing economic, social and environmental aspects of the use of nuclear energy14 France ranks second worldwide, behind the United States by number of nuclear power and the first by population density. EDF is the national electricity company and the largest producer of electricity from nuclear sources. In France there are 19 nuclear power plants with a total of 58 nuclear reactors. They are at a maximum distance of 600km between them and they are less than 1 km. housing. Certain French plants first generation, until now in operation, today have an uncertain future due to the nuclear accident in Japan. However, the French reactors, operate with a different technology than the Japanese. These work by so-called dual circuit system, this means that the first closed circuit comes in direct contact with the reactor over 300 degrees, then enters into communication with the second circuit which generates sufficient steam for operation turbines generating electricity. Instead Fukushima steam is produced directly by the single circuit to pass directly inside the reactor. In France there are not many games that pose a change in nuclear energy model. It should be borne in mind that 86% of the energy generated in the French Republlic is produced by nuclear power plants. Right now, France produces electricity cheaper than other countries and less aggressive in CO2 emissions. 14 Information provided by ofnuclearenergy.com and ratified by the French Embassy in Spain


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In the south of France is researching and developing the third generation of nuclear fusion. The enormous cost of this work are funded by Japan, the United States and other countries. This type of generator will be much safer, less radioactive waste and will produce three times more electricity. Agenda Issue: Methods to ensure Sustainable Development in MEDCs and LEDCs. We live in a new world. The French Republic is filled with joy at the thought of a new international system in which states cooperate and help each other like brothers. We still have a long way to go: (there are 16 million undernourished people only in developed countries), but we can proudly say the international community has not been idle these last years: since September of 2000, when the Millennium Declaration was signed by the whole General Assembly, there has been a joint effort to move forward in matters such as eradication of extreme poverty, achievement of universal primary education and gender equality or the fight against diseases such as malaria or AIDS. In most of these aspects France is proud to have stood as a paradigm for other states to follow, and we are ready to keep up our efforts through the deadline established in the Millennium Declaration, to which there are less than a year, and through with the post-2015 international agenda. Sadly, like the rest of the countries of the world, the French Republic has been hit by the global economic and financial crisis. In these times of uncertainty, we cannot help but worry that the countries’ effort will waver as they think –wrongly- that they have more pressing matters to attend to. Truth is, if we abandon LDC –Less Developed Countries- in their darkest hour, nobody will help them. In yet another try to set a positive example, France recently increased its contribution to the fight against AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis by a 20%, which translated in the 2011-2013 period in an expenditure of more than one billion euros. In the upcoming ECOSOC meeting at the United Nations France will not hesitate in demanding further compromise to all her fellow states in the fight against hunger, disease and misery, as we think this is a struggle that concerns all citizens in the world and towards which no amount of effort and material resources is too much. As our president, François Hollande recently stated: “We want a serious and comprehensive agreement, one that will enable all countries – developing countries, developed countries – to work together towards a number of common goals […] Food security, development, the struggle against AIDS are three other issues on which we work together. But there are so many subjects I could mention. And every single time I would mention one of those issues I would have to bear witness of the quality of our relations and of our trust, including on the most delicate issues and the most challenging ones.”


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The delegation of the French Republic is confident that this upcoming summit will bear abundant result that will leave all the parties involved satisfied and our world a slightly better place.