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 Part One: Committee Simulation
Introduction to the Committee
The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), an
organ within the United Nations Structure, has
been established by the United Nations Charter as
one of the six main organs in 1945. Headquartered
in New York, this primary organ is at the core of the
United Nations (UN) System with an aim to
advance economic, social and environmental
aspects of development. Its work also includes
coordinating efforts to achieve goals that are
globally agreed-upon along with following-up on
conferences and summits held by the UN. It serves
as a link between specialized agencies, funds,
programmes and organs dedicated to sustainable development.
Under the leadership of its current president, H.E Ambassador Marie Chatardova,
the Council works on many activities including:
● Promoting Sustainable Development,
● Managing the transition from MDGs1 to SDGs2,
● Enhancing Policy Integration,
● Developing Cooperation Forum,
● Financing for Sustainable Development,
● Ensuring Humanitarian Coordination,
● Providing Guidance for Development Operations,
● Building Partnership,
● Providing Coordination and Oversight,
● Engaging the Youth,
● Raising Awareness on Emerging Issues,
● Working with Civil Society, and
● Serving as an Advisory for Long-term Development.

1
Millenium Development Goals
2
Sustainable Development Goals
Simulation Procedure
Mandated by Chapter X of the UN Charter, the ECOSOC, with its 54 Member
States, holds a number of short sessions, preparatory meetings along with panel
discussions (with Civil Society) throughout the year. These include High-level
meetings where officials, national cabinet ministers and chiefs of international
organizations discuss coordination and operational activities.
The work of the Council is then carried out by its subsidiary bodies (functional and
regional commissions along with standing committees).
As for the Council’s bureau, it consists of the president along with the four vice-
presidents, whose propose is to set the agenda, organize the session and
programme of work with the help of the UN Secretariat.

Rules of Procedure
This committee functions under regular Rules of Procedure, you may find a
summary of the Rules of Procedure listed below.

The rules of procedure are of three types: MOTIONS (VERBAL and ORAL), POINTS
and YIELDS.

Verbal Motions
1. Motion To Set The Agenda: “Country X motions to set the agenda in favor
of topic A” This Motion Requires Simple Majority.
2. Motion To Set The Speakers List: “Country X motions to set the Speakers List
to Y seconds” This Motion Requires Simple Majority.
3. Motion to Suspend the Debate: The debate can be suspended to a
moderated, unmoderated caucus solicit third parties or a consultation of
the whole.
a. Moderated Caucus: “Country X motions to suspend the debate for a
moderated caucus to discuss Y for a total time of Z minutes and
speakers time V seconds”. This Motion Requires Simple Majority.
b. Unmoderated Caucus: “Country X motions to suspend the debate for
an unmoderated caucus to Y for a total time of 15 minutes”. This
Motion Requires Simple Majority.
c. Motion To Solicit Third Parties: “Country X motions to suspend the
debate to solicit Y, knowing that this third party has a substantive
 history concerning this topic, for a speaker's time of Z seconds.” This
Motion Requires Simple Majority.

d. Motion For A Consultation Of The Whole: “Country X motions to

suspend the debate for a consultation of the whole, to discuss [topic]
for a total time of ten minutes.” This Motion Requires Simple Majority.
4. Motion To Adjourn The Meeting: “COUNTRY X motions to adjourn the
meeting for the purpose of lunch.” This Motion Requires Simple Majority.
5. Motion To Table The Debate: “COUNTRY X motions to table the debate on
topic...” This Motion Requires Two-Thirds Majority.
6. Motion To Close The Debate: “COUNTRY X motions to close the debate on
topic.. And move into voting procedures...” This Motion Requires Two-Thirds
Majority.

Written Motions

1. Right of Reply: This is requested when a delegate feels that another

delegate has made a derogatory comment to the country he/she is
representing. There is no Right of Reply to a Right of Reply.
2. Appeal To The Chair’s Decision: This is used when a delegate feels that the
chair committed a mistake or acted unfairly.
Points

1. Point of Order: This is used when a delegate feels that the chair or a fellow
delegate has made an error in the running of the committee. This Point is
Interruptive.
2. Point of Parliamentary Procedure: Also known as a point of inquiry, this is
used when a delegate has a question regarding the rules of of procedure
or flow of debate. This Point is Non-Interruptive.
3. Point of Personal Privilege: This is used when a delegate has a certain
personal discomfort. This Point is Interruptive.
4. Point of Information: This is used when a delegate did not understand or
needs more clarifications on a certain speech or notion that a delegate
gave. This Point is Non-Interruptive.
Yields
Yields are only used when a delegate does not use his/her whole speaking time
during the formal debate. They are of three types:
1. Yield To The Chair;
2. Yield To Another Delegate;
3. Yield To Questions.
Note: A Delegate Cannot Yield Yielded Time.

Amendments
There are two types of amendments:
1. Friendly Amendments: A change to a draft resolution that all sponsors of
the latter agree with.
2. Unfriendly Amendments: A change to a draft resolution that not all sponsors
agree with. This Amendment Requires 20% Signatories from the Quorum to
Pass.

Passage of Resolutions
In small committees, draft resolutions will require two-third majority to pass. In large
committees, they will require simple majority. Each Chairperson will point out at
the beginning of the committee session the ‘required to pass’ vote that will be
applied in each committee.
 Part Two Topic Briefing
Introduction to the Topic

Defining Hunger
According to the United Nations
World Food Programme, hunger is
defined as a state of discomfort
resulting from the decreased or
lack of food intake.

Evident phenomena that result

from hunger include
undernourishment and
malnourishment.
Undernourishment, considered as
a measurement of food
deprivation by the Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) is
when an individual does not have the enough dietary energy to maintain a
healthy life.
As for malnourishment, it is the lack of dietary energy which results from the
insufficiency of the quality or variety of the consumed food.

The above phenomena are characterized within the category of food insecurity.

Food Security Criteria

According to the United Nations World Food Programme, an individual is

considered to be food secure when they have access to adequate and safe
sources of nutritious food.
As for food insecurity, it is the access to
insufficient amounts of nutritious food
needed for an active and healthy life,
growth and body development.
States are categorized as food secure or
insecure based on four main criteria:
- Food Availability: This includes
sufficient quantities of food
available in a certain area. Sources
of availability could vary between
national production, imports through
trade or foreign aid. Ultimately, the
focus lies on the supply of the food in
the market.
- Food Access: This criterion includes
the ability to access food through
purchases, foreign aid kits, home-
production or other mechanisms of
barter. The focus mainly lies on the demand of the households and their
economic and physical capabilities.
- Food Utilization: This criterion entails the nutritious impact of food on people.
This is affected by its storage, mode of consumption, cooking and hygiene
and sanitation practices within households.
- Stability of Food Availability, Utilization and Accessibility Over Time: This
criterion ensures the consistency in the preceding. An individual should
experience a stability in the levels of food availability, accessibility and
utilization over a long period of time.

An individual is characterized as food secure when the four criteria are met
simultaneously.

Hunger in Sub-Saharan Africa

Sub Saharan Africa is composed of the area below the African Sahara. It consists
of countries such as Nigeria, Central African Republic and South Africa.
In 2017, Sub Saharan countries
witnessed a surge of hunger as a
continuum to the ongoing
phenomenon of food insecurity
in the region. While the United
Nations has announced that 224
million suffer from forms of
insecurity and poverty in 2016,
the situation persists.

With 60% of its poor quantile

lacking access to proper hygiene
and water facilities along with
undernourished, impoverished
and vulnerable individuals,
particularly children, Sub-
Saharan Africa stands to be one
of the poorest regions on the globe with high levels of inequality within and
between the States. Through the various progress reports done by the United
Nations’ organs or its implementing partners, it is noticeable that Sub Saharan
Africa has been incapable of reaching the set targets, has shown minimal
progress and still hampers in the process of development.

Around half of the food insecurity and hunger cases are primarily caused by
armed conflict which either leads to the displacement of individuals/groups or
prevents food products to enter the markets. These conflicts’ nature has variated
between civil strife, inter and intra-State3. Natural resources, political and socio-
economic goals of the elite in these countries have been the core cause of the
preceding disputes. Additionally, droughts, floods, extreme rainfall and other
severe weather conditions can serve as factors that diminish the levels of food
security in most areas. The effect(s) of the above is often alleviated by the high
level of poverty in the Sub-Saharan Region.

3
Inter-State: between States; intra-State: within the State itself
Climate change and such factors are also major determinants of the agricultural
output which is the source of livelihood of 75% of the Sub-Saharan inhabitants.

History and Development of the Topic

1980s-1990s

According to the United Nations Human Development Reports, by the 1990s, the
Sub-Saharan have improved
their situation relative to the
1980s, yet the human
development indices in these
countries remained low. While
the 1990s served as a rectifying
period to compensate for the
human development
damages of the 80s (a
decrease in social spending
reflected in the sharp increase
of malnutrition and infant
mortality), around 45-46% of
the population has access
to health and food services.
Despite the slight
improvement, the Sub-
Saharan countries still
experienced a generic
decrease in the supply of
caloric energy per capita.
In 1990 alone, only 100
million individuals were
affected by the famine
while a wide majority were
food insecure.
The situation worsened in 1994 where 240 million Sub-Saharan Africans were
reported undernourished, portraying a poor effort in recovering. This left the
period after 1980s-90s with a huge challenge of the efficient distribution of food.
This includes reaching the most vulnerable and the poorest individuals in hard-to-
reach areas.

Early 2000s

As of 2002, the harvest and expanded food production remained to be

insufficient in comparison to the increasing population.
While the global levels of hunger declined significantly in the 2000s, the
commitment of the international community to the Millennium Development
Goals among which is ending hunger, food insecurity and hunger were still
evident in Sub-Saharan areas. Having committed to the mentioned goals, the
region saw a rise in extreme poverty, undernourishment and food insecurity levels
with a slight increase in the percentage of those who are hungry.

Despite the decrease in the number of undernourished individuals, a

considerable 23.7 % (171.9 million individuals) still lacked food and health security.
The trend of prevalence of undernourishment witnessed a decrease in 2000 faced
with a sharp increase in 2016. Signs of a hunger crisis included 56.8 million stunted
children by 2015 (24.1 percent of the world total), wasting 4 and thinness along
with the prevalence of many diseases.

Given the above, the efforts conducted by the Sub-Saharan countries have been
deemed ineffective as the levels of hunger and undernourishment resumed a
rising trend in 2014. This has also been matched by an equivalent and parallel
increase in child stunting5 and wasting as of 2012.

In order to understand the prevailing reality in the region, understanding the

underlying factors of food production and unused lands is crucial. The output of
the agricultural sector has been rooted for the final consumption of the
individuals; it is necessary yet insufficient. Consequently, Sub-Saharan African
Countries faced and still face primary challenges in food security due to the lack

4
When the weight of the child is too low for the height.
5
Impaired growth of children due to cases of severely poor nutrition.
of its availability, the insufficiency of its supply, and the missing knowledge of its
proper utilization to ensure the maximum intake of nutrients to maintain a healthy
life.

Transition Between MDGs and SDGs

Having reached 2015 with no concrete efforts of good governance to eradicate

extreme levels of hunger and poverty, the transition between MDGs and SDGs
included the commitment to a new set of goals in 2015 to be accomplished in
2030.

While the potential of the MDGs had been evaluated and deemed as insufficient
in Sub-Saharan Africa, new goals have been set. According to the United Nations
Millennium Development Goals Reports in 2015, the region has been reported to
face daunting challenges of emerging poverty and famine. By 2015, 40% of its
population lived in extreme poverty (under $1.25 a day) and fragility as the
countries witness to opposing trends of a population increasing at an increasing
rate and food supply remaining at a relatively stable if not a decreasing trend.
According to the Africa Regional Overview of Food and Nutrition in 2017, two
years after the adoption of the SDG 2030 Development Agenda, the dire situation
in Sub-Saharan Africa had gone through an evaluation, and goals were set in
compliance to the global initiative. The report analyzes the phenomenon of
hunger along with that of food insecurity and emerging obesity which seem
logically incoherent. Whilst food insecurity involves the lack of sufficient nutritional
intake, obesity can also occur through the unhealthy choice of food due to the
lack of alternative availability.

Inhabitants of that region struggle with their weak purchasing power along with
the high food price volatility and elevated prices, leaving nutritious food to be
luxury to those who can afford it. These collective factors have led the FAO to
announce the surge of hunger and famine crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa.
 Prominent Aspects of The Topic

Hunger and Human Development

Various studies have shown that human development is deeply rooted to the
productivity of individuals who form the aggregate. Hunger, food security, under-
and malnutrition entail the lack of sufficient caloric energy to lead a healthy life.
Consequently, an individual is incapable of performing well at specific jobs that
require particular levels of human physical or mental capabilities.

Under such a reality, the summation of such cases would thus result in an overall
decrease in the productivity of the society. With a decrease in productivity comes
a decrease in income and thus in the standard of living.

Hunger also contributes to the weakening of the immune system thus to the
increased spread of diseases such as malaria, pneumonia, diarrhea, scurvy,
beriberi and many more. The spread of disease also hampers the productivity of
an individual and impedes human
development even further.

The decrease in human

productivity can also be linked to
the inefficiencies found in the
agricultural sector along with the
mechanisms of food supply.
The pre-mentioned factors are
widely interconnected and lead to
the same endpoint; the present
surge of hunger and situation at
hand.
Education and Hunger

Nutrient sufficiency, health, and education are the main factors that are used to
calculate the human development index. Education is a pivotal element in a
society, as the presence of high levels of primary and secondary education
indirectly result in optimal standards of living and health.
With the increase in the level of literacy, knowledge (indigenous knowledge in
specific) and schooling rates, hunger can be fought.
Using education to fight hunger beings with educating mothers, especially those
who are lactating, is primarily done through humanitarian efforts of guidance.
Providing these mothers with breastfeeding guidance along with the essential
dietary combinations and food intake frequency will lessen the rates of child
stunting, wasting and infant mortality.
Education also leads to the increased wisdom and food-shortage management.
With education comes the need to develop and innovate, thus triggering
economic growth and improving the current situation.

Democracy and Hunger

One of the main causes behind the famine is the inability of individuals to access
sources of food. This has been mainly rooted to the presence of inter or intra-state
conflicts such as civil strife or disputes over conflicting goals and interests.
Along with the forms of poor governance present in Sub-Saharan Africa, the lack
of democracy has been portrayed through the domination of the elite who are
the landlords, and who refuse to invest unused lands in favour of the agricultural
sector to provide food. The governments have also joined the landlords in
denying the sector more than 10% of the national budgets. The lack of attention
to the crisis at hand has been worsening its detrimental effects.
 International Actions

Zero Hunger Initiative

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP)

has initiated the Zero Hunger Project in aim to
implement the second SDG which pledges to
“end hunger, achieve food security, improve
nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture”.
Considered to be one of the main challenges
faced by the Programme itself, the initiative
entails the increase in the humanitarian food aid
along with conducting assessments to identify
those in need.
In aim of achieving the above, the WFP has been
conducting implementation plans to adapt and
invest in the elimination of hunger through emergency operations or campaigns.

Global Hunger Index (GHI)

The Global Hunger Index, calculated by the International Food Policy Research
Institute, is an index that highlights the level and intensity of the hunger crisis
among regions. The indicators used to calculate it include child mortality, calorie
deficiency and child malnutrition.
According to the 2017 GHI, hunger levels in Sub-Saharan Africa are high; the most
elevated of which are in countries located in the Southern section of the Sahara.

The classification has also extended to include segregations of cities and towns,
thus shedding light on the exact areas where hunger is present at the highest
rates.
FAO Regional Meeting on Agricultural Biotechnologies in Sustainable Food
Systems and Nutrition in Sub-Saharan Africa

During November 2017, the Ethiopian Government and the FAO co-hosted the
“Regional Meeting on Agricultural Biotechnologies in Sustainable Food Systems
and Nutrition in Sub-Saharan Africa” in the African Union Centre. The meeting
included government officials along with intergovernmental organization heads
and other institutions.
The agenda of the meeting included discussions on the role of biotechnologies
and agriculture along with the use of genetic resources, thus focusing the effort
on the spread of knowledge and capacity-building.

Recommendations

● Delegates are recommended to be aware of the topic and its aspects.

● It is highly advised to look at previous humanitarian food assistance
strategies and evaluate them.
● Delegates are expected to be familiar with key terms such as food security,
stunting and wasting.
● Knowledge of the sustainable development goals and mechanisms of
humanitarian assistance of the United Nations is advisable.
● Delegates must remain up to date with the happenings and the current
news of the situation.

Questions to Consider

● Has your country faced cases of hunger?

● Are the international efforts enough to tackle the situation at hand?
● What underlying factors should be resolved first?
 ● Is micro-financing beneficial in the fight against hunger?
● Are private-sector entities included in the approach to the situation at
hand?
● Is there a specialized commission to tackle hunger in Sub-Saharan Africa?

Part Three: Further Reference Links

This section includes some additional links for further research.

● http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/communications/
wfp275057.pdf?_ga=2.237998787.211090970.1515248819-1920776175.1497264354
● https://ourworldindata.org/hunger-and-undernourishment/

Part Four: References

“About Us | UNITED NATIONS ECONOMIC and SOCIAL COUNCIL.” United Nations,
United Nations, www.un.org/ecosoc/en/about-us.

“Steady progress on many Millennium Development Goals continues in sub-

Saharan Africa | Africa Renewal Online.” United Nations, United Nations,
www.un.org/africarenewal/news/steady-progress-many-millennium-
development-goals-continues-sub-saharan-africa.

“Hunger and Poverty: Definitions and Distinctions . The Hunger Project, Hunger
and Poverty: Definitions and Distinctions .” The Hunger Project, The Hunger Project,
www.thp.org/files/Hunger%20and%20Poverty.pdf.

“The Millennium Development Goals Report.” The United Nations, The United
Nations,
www.un.org/millenniumgoals/2015_MDG_Report/pdf/backgrounders/MDG%202
015%20PR%20Bg%20SSA.pdf.
“Human Development Report 1998.” United Nations Development Programme,
The United Nations,
hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/reports/259/hdr_1998_en_complete_nostats.pdf.

“Human Development Report 1992.” United Nations Development Programme,

The United Nations,
http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/reports/221/hdr_1992_en_complete_nosta
ts.pdf.

“Human Development Report 1994.” United Nations Development Programme,

The United Nations,
http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/reports/255/hdr_1994_en_complete_nosta
ts.pdf.

“Human Development Report 1990.” United Nations Development Programme,

The United Nations,
http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/reports/219/hdr_1990_en_complete_nosta
ts.pdf.

“2017 Global Hunger Index Released.” Sub Saharan Africa Food Security Portal,
ssa.foodsecurityportal.org/content/2017-global-hunger-index-released.

“FAO.org.” FAO Regional Meeting on Agricultural Biotechnologies in Sustainable

Food Systems and Nutrition in Sub-Saharan Africa | FAO Regional Office for Africa
| Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations,
www.fao.org/africa/events/detail-events/en/c/1035227/.

“Zero Hunger.” Homepage, www1.wfp.org/zero-hunger.

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