Study Guide - World Model United Nations

guished by economic status: developed nations, which
will have a significant role in advising other nations in
how to maximize the use of technology in the government
system; developing nations, which will be most
primed to begin incorporating or further implementing
e-governance technologies; and underdeveloped
nations that the United Nations can prepare for higher
efficiency in the future.
Developed nations, such as the European Nations and
the United States, already have very significant and progressive
methods of incorporating e-governance into
current infrastructures. These nations are most likely
to be advisory nations, and likely to share similar experiences
with growth in e-governance techniques. It is
possible that there may be some specialization in particular
industries or spheres of e-governance, and I recommend
that you conduct research into your particular
country’s e-governance policies and preferences.
India has been an extremely active developing nation
in incorporating e-governance into its current government
infrastructure. It makes sense to use any developing
allies that India may have to form a bloc of countries
that can pool information and share results of infrastructural
development.
The African nations are somewhat split. It is crucial
to understand the difference between more developed
African nations (such as South Africa, which is implementing
e-governance techniques), and other nations
that are less likely to implement e-governance on a large
scale.
Each nation is likely to have opinions on the amount
that the government should be able to regulate sensitive
information published on the Internet (for example, nations
strongly affected by WikiLeaks will be more concerned
about this topic).
Though there are definitely particular avenues that
these nations can take, most nations have a desire to
streamline government process and create a more efficient
bureaucracy. It is important to consider, also, the
transparency of the government of your nation. If the
government is hesitant to have significant amounts of
transparency, certain avenues of e-governance may be
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closed to them. Be sure to research these particularly
heavily, because staying within country policy is of extreme
importance for success in this committee.
Suggestions for further research
In order to best comprehend the issue of e-governance,
I would suggest relying on a variety of websites
from the UN bodies that have dealt with e-governance
in the past. Some sites that I would highly recommend
are the UNDP website, the UNESCO website, and the
UNGAID website. I would also recommend reading
current events involving this issue as much as possible,
from a variety of news sites such as BBC or CNN.
For more background information about your country
in particular, I suggest looking at the CIA World Factbook,
and also at the Ministry of Information, the Ministry
of Communication, or any other infrastructural
bureau of your nation that may be directly involved
with this issue. It may be helpful to see if your nation
already has an institution dedicated to e-governance,
in which case there is probably a governmental website
with a wealth of information about this topic.
t o p i C B
Statement of the problem
Small island developing states, also referred to as
SIDs, are “small island and low-lying coastal countries
that share similar sustainable development challenges,
including small population, lack of resources,
remoteness, susceptibility to natural disasters, excessive
dependence on international trade and vulnerability to
global developments.” 21
Generally, there are relatively high costs of production,
communication, and transportation in these nations
because they are unable to create efficient economies of
scale due to their size and geographical constraints. This
can stunt economic growth, which makes it difficult for
these nations to remain relevant on the world stage in
terms of growth and economic contribution.
These small island nations have organized themselves
into the Alliance of Small Island States, or AOSIS. According
to the United Nations’ records, there are fiftyone
nations that are considered members of this group
of SID nations. The Barbados Programme of Action,
UNDP 15