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United Nations Development Program United Nations Development Program Topic A: Bureaucratic Corruption Topic B: Due Diligence for Development Investment MUNUC 32 TABLE OF CONTENTS ______________________________________________________ Letter from the Chair………………………………………………………….. 3 History of UNDP……………....………………………………………………... 5 Topic A: Sovereignty and Security of the Arctic and Antarctic…....… 6 Statement of the Problem…………………………………………….. 6 History of the Problem………………………………………………… 13 Past Actions…………………………………………………………….. 16 Possible Solutions………………………………………………………. 19 Bloc Positions…………………………………………………………… 20 Glossary…………………………………………………………………. 22 Bibliography……………………………………………………………. 24 Topic B: Cybersecurity and Sovereignty of Cyberspace……………. 26 Statement of the Problem…………………………………………….26 History of the Problem………………………………………………… 31 Past Actions…………………………………………………………….. 35 Possible Solutions………………………………………………………. 37 Bloc Positions…………………………………………………………… 39 Glossary…………………………………………………………………. 41 Bibliography……………………………………………………………. 42 2 United Nations Development Program | MUNUC 32 LETTER FROM THE CHAIR ______________________________________________________ Dear delegates, Every one of you is crucial to a discussion about development. When my Under Secretary General asked me to rank what countries I wanted in my committee, I requested all of the United Nations Member States, equally ranked. On the issue of development, there is no such thing as a more important country and a less important country; small countries without much name recognition on the world stage may in fact have the most insights into development issues. I think that international development is a particularly good topic for Model United Nations because it invites participation from everyone. I am so excited to listen to speeches from all of you, read all of your contributions to working papers, and see all of you discussing development with your new committee colleagues and friends. The highest priority of me, my staff members, and MUNUC overall is that each of you contribute in your own way and learn from the experience. Please don’t be shy about asking us for guidance – we won’t be shy about approaching you and helping you get involved! I competed in Model UN competitions both in high school and college, so I know how you feel. I know the anxious exhilaration of meeting a huge roomful of people with whom you will work closely, I know the intense nervousness before you stand up to speak and the power you feel when you are heard, the satisfying exhaustion of a weekend that demands enormous intellectual and social energy. Whether you want a few pointers of feedback to improve or encouragement when you overwhelmed, my team and I will be there for you. You will have advisors and classmates to help you prepare for conference, but I wanted to give you a few pointers for this committee specifically. Throughout the background guide you will see bolded/underlined/italicized text with instructions for individual research and our work during committee. Please pay attention to these. Additionally, both of these topics are technical. It is important to become familiar with the terms we will use. Please read the glossary carefully, and 3 United Nations Development Program | MUNUC 32 make vocabulary flashcards if needed. Finally, I put a lot of work into finding hundreds of the best resources in existence on these topics – it is all there in the footnotes. When something in the background guide particularly interests you and you want to learn more, start with the resource I am citing for that sentence or paragraph before doing your own research. I care deeply about development issues, and will most likely devote my career to this field. My own background is in the Eurasia region. I am a Russian and East European Studies major, with a minor in Creative Writing. I have lived for about two years total in Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and Azerbaijan, which allowed me to start to understand a lot of development issues firsthand. (An anti-corruption revolution while I was in Moldova for a gap year before college was what sparked my interest in fighting corruption!) I have completed internships about economic and democratic development in D.C., Kyiv and St. Petersburg and am writing my undergraduate thesis about corruption in Ukraine. Overall, my understanding of development issues comes equally from academics, professional experiences and kitchen table conversations. I am very excited to learn even more from all of you! Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions before conference. I can’t wait to see you! Best wishes, Katrina 4 United Nations Development Program | MUNUC 32 HISTORY OF UNDP ______________________________________________________ The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) was created by the United Nations General Assembly in 1965. The UNDP merged the work of two previous bodies, the United Nations Expanded Programme of Technical Assistance and the United Nations Special Fund. Over time, the concept of the UNDP changed from approving technical assistance grant applications from developing countries to direct collaboration with developing countries. The UNDP cooperates closely with other UN bodies in the UN Sustainable Development Group, such as WHO and UNICEF. The UNDP runs the UN Capital Development Fund and UN Volunteers. Their 2018-2021 Strategic Plan includes six Signature Solutions to development problems, related to poverty, governance, crisis resilience, the environment, energy, and gender equality. The UNDP is committed to helping every country meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 5 United Nations Development Program | MUNUC 32 TOPIC A: BUREAUCRATIC CORRUPTION ______________________________________________________ Statement of the Problem What is corruption? The broadest and widely accepted definition of corruption is “the abuse of entrusted power for private gain.”1 The definition proposed by the World Bank is slightly more specific, replacing “entrusted power” with “public office.”2 Neither the United Nations as a whole, nor the UNDP in particular, has adopted a concrete definition of corruption. Definitions in dictionaries such as Merriam-Webster3 are not acceptable or useful for our purposes because they are defining the word corruption and how it is popularly used, not the term corruption. Dictionary definitions may focus on dishonesty, illegality, and immorality, all of which are indeed associated with corruption in everyday use of the word, but are also subjective (who decides what is considered immoral?) and inaccurate (not all forms of corruption are illegal in every country!). While some definitions of corruption are broad enough to encompass corruption between private individuals, for example, the CEO of a company hiring her daughter instead of a more qualified applicant, most often when we talk about corruption we mean something that involves a public official, that is, someone elected or appointed to a job in the government. Such a job requires the trust of the people to use the power, information, taxpayer and other public funds available to a public official in the interests of the state rather than to serve their own monetary, career, family, or other interests. Thus, corruption is a breach of that trust. General categories of corruption 1 “Anti-Corruption Glossary: Corruption,” Transparency International, accessed May 18, 2019, https://www.transparency.org/glossary/term/corruption. 2 Masood Ahmed, Cheryl Gray, et al., “Helping Countries Combat Corruption: The Role of the World Bank,” The World Bank Group, September 1997, http://www1.worldbank.org/publicsector/anticorrupt/corruptn/corrptn.pdf. 3 “Corruption,” Merriam Webster, accessed May 18, 2019, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/corruption. 6 United Nations Development Program | MUNUC 32 Corruption is usually grouped into two broad categories: grand corruption and bureaucratic corruption.4 Bureaucratic corruption and petty corruption are essentially the same thing, and petty corruption is in fact a more common term. However, we will use the term bureaucratic, because the word “petty” has connotations such as unimportant and personal that may hinder understanding the issue. In contrast, the term “bureaucratic,” with its connotations of a system of everyday functions of a government, is more useful. However, remember that “bureaucratic” does not just involve office work, but may include police officers, teachers, healthcare workers, and other public officials. The main difference between grand corruption and bureaucratic corruption is how highly-ranked the public official involved is.5 When a corrupt act is committed by a person considered high-ranking, such as a mayor of a city or a member of the national parliament, then usually this will be labeled grand corruption. Grand corruption sometimes involves not only the high-ranking official herself, but also some of her staff down the chain, leading to a scandal involving multiple people.6 These are the types of scandals that make the news when they are uncovered. In contrast, when an act similar in nature is committed by a lower-ranking official, such as an average customs officer, it is considered bureaucratic corruption. This type of corruption is typically limited to a single individual. It is important to note that the impact of the corrupt act on society and its monetary value are not necessarily determinants of what is considered bureaucratic or grand corruption. Although a higher- ranking official sometimes has greater access to power,
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