Welcome to Bentley Model UN!
The Bentley Model United Nations Program is a group of students interested in international affairs who research topics concerning the UN and then put this knowledge to use by hosting two conferences for High School and Middle School students.
Every January, the secretariat of our conference spends one week at the United Nations in New York. During this week, our members are briefed by members of the UN secretariat, permanent representatives to the United Nations, as well as by other groups who figure prominently into the affairs of the United Nations.
Written by admin on 05 February 2011
The following outline is the Bentley Model UN Club’s recommendations for country research. It is up to you how much research you do, but keep in mind that you are representing your country and should be familiar with as many aspects of that country as possible. The more information you have, the more you will get out of the Model UN conference!
I. General Information and Statistics
A. Size of the country
B. Location (make sure to identify its neighboring countries)
C. Population
D. Population Density
E. Population Growth Rate
F. Average Life Expectancy
G. Language(s) Spoken
H. Literacy Rate
I. Religion
J. History
K. Form of Government
L. Leader of Government
M. Economic System (capitalism, socialism, communism, etc.)
N. Type of Economy (agricultural, industrialized, diversified, etc.)
O. Gross National Product
P. Average Income per Person
Q. National Resources
R. Imports (value and items)
S. Exports (value and items)
T. Trading Partners
U. Aid (received/given, from whom/to whom, what form of aid)
V. Allies and/or Enemies
W. Member of which Bloc in the UN?
X. Member of which International Organization
Y. Are there Strong Minorities or Opposing Political Factions within Your Country?
II. Geography and History
What is the location?
What is the capital? Are there other large and/or important cities?
What is the climate? What is the impact of the climate and geography on agriculture and possibilities of import and export?
What are the neighboring countries?
Are there any border problems with the neighbors?
Were there any problems with the neighbors in the past?
Is there still animosity between your country and its neighbors?
Is there history of imperialism? Was your country a colony?
III. People
How large is the population?
How is it distributed in the country?
What are the ethnic groups?
What are the religious groups?
Are there other factors that divide the population (such as language)?
Is the sense of national strong (is the population united)?
IV. Economy
What are the primary natural resources and are they used appropriately?
Is the country industrialized?
Is it a developing or developed country?
Are most people organized in agriculture, industry or trade?
What are major imports and exports?
Who are the major trading partners?
V. Politics and Government
What type of government is it?
Who is the current leader?
When did your country become independent (from whom did they gain independence)?
What political parties exist and which one is in power now?
Are there any internal political problems?
What alliances or memberships does it have in international organizations? What is their significance?
How powerful is your country (in terms of military, alliances, strategic position, and nuclear capability)? Does the power it has play a major role in the way it co-exists with both friends and enemies?
Did your country participate in any recent or current international conflicts?
Written by admin on 02 November 2010
DAKAR, Senegal, 19 November 2010 – When she was eight years old, Aisatou Ba quit school and began working as a maid. Though she begged her parents to let her stay in school, the economic pressure on the family proved too strong. The Senegalese teenager has been cleaning houses and cooking in restaurants instead of studying textbooks and learning arithmetic for the past seven years.
Dressed in a white shirt and black-and-red skirt, seated on the edge of a bed in the apartment building she cleans, Ba talks about the day her parents told her she would have to quit school. “My parents said they could no longer afford it, and they needed help at home,” she says.
Ba is from the village of Velingara, Senegal, and her story is all too common here in West Africa, which has some of the world’s lowest gender parity and girls’ primary-school enrolment rates in the world. In Senegal, while girls’ enrolment has increased in the past ten years, the challenge is to keep them in school.
The root of this issue is often economic: National surveys show that twice as many children from the richest households attend primary school, compared to children from the poorest households.
“When girls are physically able to do domestic work, they take them out of school,” says Aissatou Dieng, who works for Senegal’s Minister of Education and specializes in girls education efforts. “Often families keep girls as young as 10 years old home from school to work or help their mothers. It’s a big problem in Senegal.” But it is nearly impossible to count all the young girls who work as domestic help, because they largely stay indoors most of the day.
After working in her home village, Ba arrived in Dakar last year. She has been working here ever since. Ba says nearly all of the jobs available to her entail domestic work. She says she knows if she could have stayed in school, she would have had better opportunities.
Ba currently works Monday through Saturday for seven hours a day. At the end of every month she takes home 35,000 CFA, or just less than $70.
As a young girl, Ba watched as her brothers continued to go to school. Her eldest brother now works as a nurse in a hospital and helps support the family. In Senegal, girls are often singled out to quit school and help the family at a young age. Fewer than one in five girls are able to go to secondary school – and later in life there are only 6 literate adult women for every 10 literate men.
“Young children are used as a coping mechanism in response to economic shocks,” says UNICEF Child Protection Officer Daniela Luciani. “This means that girls often marry young or go to work very young.”
Ba doubts she will ever go back to school, but she says that when she has daughters of her own, she will help them get a better education.
