Success story from Egypt - MUN 2016 Assembly UN HQ NYC - GUCMUN: Farah Mourad & Merna Ghaly

My name's Farah Mourad; I have been doing MUN for five years. I was a Libya delegate in Junior Cairo Model United Nations-JCIMUN 2013 , an Innovation head in Egyptian language School Model United Nations-ELSMUN 2014, an OHCHR US delegate in German University in Cairo-GUCMUN 2015, a GA6th USA delegate in World Federation of United Nations Association Model United Nations- WIMUN 2016, a Security Council Rapporteur GUCMUN 2016, and finally I am the current GUCMUN Secretary of Academic Affairs. My name's Merna Ghaly, current Secretary General of GUCMUN, my MUN experience is rather diverse and has allowed me the chance to encounter different methods and styles in simulating the United Nations, starting from representing The French and The Iranian delegations in Security Council on two consecutive years during middle school. Fastforwarding to five years later in my Sophomore year in college and my year as an exchange student, I joined the University of Central Missouri MUN team; together we represented four delegations in two conferences: AMUN and Midwest MUN. I represented the Vietnamese delegation in the General Assembly Third Committee delegate in the former and Zimbabwe in the Commission on the Status of Women in the later. As soon as my exchange year was over, I found my new MUN experience and a new home in GUCMUN and have been part of the entity ever since; in 2015 as a Security Council delegate, 2016 as the Secretariat for the General Assembly Third Committee, and today in 2017 as the Secretary General.

Both of us were representing GUCMUN in the MUN 2016 Youth Assembly at the United Nations Headquarters; the committee we were part of was MUN Think-Tank. The specialized topics were very flexible covering several aspects of MUNs, starting from discussing the differences between MUNs around the world and the possibility of creating partnerships between them, creating guidelines for the award systems and the set of skills that MUNers should have, to discussing and analyzing the different kinds of Rules of Procedure and how UN4MUN can be incorporated. We also focused on how MUNs can be a platform for promoting peace and reflecting the Sustainable Development Goals .

We believe that multiple brains working with synergy is always better than working solo. We got exposed to a large number of diverse MUNers that have very different working methods and visions than those of ours, which in turn made the discussions very rich because of the additions that every model was adding; it was like a piece of puzzle that is getting completed with constant recommendations, initiatives, and enhancements made by the global MUN community. The part that we enjoyed the most was the one revolving around MUNers role in promoting peace and reflecting the SDGs, why? because we, the Secretary Office of GUCMUN, are directing a huge effort of ours towards creating action steps for our model towards community development and practical implementations of the SDGs, and having the privilege of discussing this offered us with plenty of ideas and approaches that we are currently taking further in GUCMUN 2017.

We got the chance to give a speech on the General Assembly's podium which was a proud moment to say the least. To even be in the General Assembly and the ECOSOC chambers, the very place where decisions that have shaped the world to be the way it is in our present day; and to get the chance to stand where many of our idols have stood was a lot like a dream come true, and definitely a full force push forwards for it to never be our last time sitting in the delegates’ seats.

We talked about our future plans in GUCMUN in implementing the resolution that was just made regarding our plans for focusing on implementing the SDGs, and the potential plan of creating a local summit for MUNs in Egypt to take further and pass on what was discussed in the youth assembly to a local scale in Egypt.

Our delegation got awarded with "Outstanding Delegation" and it was a great motivation for all of us; it reassured us that we are on the right track and that the direction we're taking leads us to where we would want to be.

We came to this assembly not knowing what to expect, and what we found was hope. Hope that the world can in fact be a better place; hope that we CAN do something to change the world; and hope in the fact that we are not the only ones trying. In GUCMUN, change is an integral part of what our entity stands for and aims to achieve, and we came back from the Assembly with more solid tools on how it can be implemented, how we can actually start walking the walk instead of only talking the talk. Inspired by the ideas and initiatives brought up in the Assembly, GUCMUN has worked on modifying our initial prototype for an action committee to become one of our main bodies as an organisation: ECOSOC. Our model for ECOSOC is rather unconventional, the delegates/commissioners will not only “simulate” in the conference, rather they are required to reach a realistic resolution that can be implemented on ground on the local level, fulfilling one or more of the SDGs, which they will then actually implement in the community during their prolonged period of involvement. Meaning that that the delegates will not stop at just “modeling” reality, they will have their own role in changing it.

This additional focus that we as GUCMUN have is not one that we intend to keep private, we want to gradually reach out to other MUNs within our community, to get them involved in this beautiful global ripple effect; and to create partnerships that can eventually lead up to events and Summits organised on the national level.

Had we been asked before whether MUNs can actually change the world, we would have probably not given a positive answer, but would continue to tell all about how different and special the MUN theory of change is, and how we focus on the pieces that create the whole; However, now with this new direction MUNs are taking globally, to not only observe, but to start taking part in the process, to assist in the realisation of our Global Goals; it is now, that we as MUNers of the world finally have a chance at making a difference!