Rethinking, Reforming and Reimagining

By Reuters

(Writer- Avyakt Jaiswal, Photographer- Shubham Gupta)

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It all began with utter silence with occasional questions to the chairs , with the delegates' faces filled with intensity and focus, as some started preparing for the commencement of the conference, others stared off into space. Then, with a sudden thrust, the conference was set into motion with the general speakers list.

Beginning with Delegate of the US emphasizing the need for foreign aid when considering conflict stricken zones, similar points being followed by the Russian federation, who stated that it has joined hands with other countries to provide aid...which really ignited the fierce discussion which was about to take place.

The delegate of the UK questioned the federation’s stance by taking into example the fact that it had not met the GDP requirement of 0.7, also aptly saying: ‘We are here for resolutions, not problems we are already aware of’. He also mentioned how foreign aid is not always transparent, because countries are not aware of how their offered income is being used. With this, a motion for an unmoderated caucus was approved, where delegates crammed into one space and began conversing on reducing the dependence of countries receiving foreign aid, political instability and how all of this can simply be countered by focusing on policies which boost local markets and encourage post conflict countries to stand up on their own.

With this, the majority of delegates came to the temporary consensus that post conflict countries are fragile and their geopolitical state is very weak, due to this, empowering local markets is imperative if we want to see these countries grow.  Other delegates brought up points in relation to post conflict income generation, reformation of infrastructure and empowering global stake-holders. 

Countries then outlined their concerns regarding aid and trade in post conflict zones, emphasizing on issues such as the negative impact of armed conflict on the infrastructure of these countries, following this, nations such as the Ivory Coast came up with resolutions such as A.I.D, a policy they are implementing to tackle problems introduced to their economy by the conflicts they had suffered in the past.

Towards the end of the session, delegates, such as the delegate of india  also introduced the proposition of education and how that could assist majorly in the economic development of post conflict zones.  As all of the pieces of the puzzle slowly started to fit in and the delegates reached a possible consensus, I decided to question some of them:

R: Delegate of the UK, what are your comments on the brexit disaster which would inevitably result in the separation of ireland and scotland from your country and also impact your economy rather negatively, also considering Theresa May’s recent resignation ? 

UK: As for Theresa May, the UK does not represent her, but only the interests of our country, as for predictions that our economy might be negatively affected by the brexit, they are only predictions. 

R: Delegate, what are your thoughts on the PPP programme which is essentially private public partnership, also  promoting the boost of local markets and implemented in belarus by the UNCE supporting the local reformation of countries, as discussed many times here, in this conference?

UK: The delegate of the UK firmly believes that the PPP is a beneficial economic programme of which we would like to promote the use of in the case of reforming conflict zones.

India- We had applied the PPP in 2011 and that had really shown positive impacts on our economy, so the delegate of india fully supports the international promotion of the PPP.