*This guest article was written by Renato Peixeiro Filho Pinto, Secretary-General of FAMUN 2016, Murilo Concon Risso, Academic Secretary of FAMUN 2016 and Maria Rita Martins Favareto, Administrative Secretary of FAMUN 2016.
The UN4MUN experience has come to Brazil!
The UN4MUN approach is getting more known all over the world and this year it has finally come to Brazil. The approach aims at shifting the Model UNs to the real dynamic of the United Nations itself. One example is the focus on reaching consensus on all the decisions made in each committee, since most models do not encourage it as the main objective of discussions. Another important change is the use of official UN documents as research material for delegates, so they can get familiar with the UN language. Besides,
FAMUN 2016 Secretariat. From the left to right: Academic Secretary, Murilo Concon Risso; General Secretary, Renato Peixeiro Filho Pinto; and Administrative Secretary, Maria Rita Martins Favareto.
moderated or unmoderated caucuses do not guide discussions in the UN. The UN4MUN approach introduces the dynamics of formal and informal consultations, in which the leadership and coordination structures better mirrors the dynamic in the UN.
From 6-9 November 2015, the Department of Public Information organized the UN4MUN Workshop in New York. The workshop had a strong presence of Brazilian participants. Among them, the organizers of FACAMP Model United Nations (FAMUN) – one of the most important Brazilian MUNs, organized by FACAMP, a private college from Campinas-SP – were present. The Academic Secretary of FAMUN, Murilo Concon, and the Faculty Advisor from FACAMP, Professor Patrícia Rinaldi, attended the workshop and soon spread all the knowledge they have acquired to FACAMP students. FAMUN organizers have decided that it was about time for Brazilian models to reorganize its procedures to reflect the real negotiations at the UN today.
In this spirit, the Secretariat of FAMUN 2016 organized a workshop called UN4MUN Brazil from 19-20 March 2016, at the campus of FACAMP. The event brought together the organizers of 8 different MUNs from all over the country: AMUN (Brasília-DF), TEMAS (Belo Horizonte-MG), SIRIEN (Rio de Janeiro-RJ), UFUMUN (Uberlândia-MG), SINU (Juiz de Fora-MG), UFRGSMUN (Porto Alegre-RS), SPMUN (São Paulo-SP) and FAMUN (Campinas-SP). During the event, Professors Patrícia Rinaldi and Talita Pinotti, from FACAMP, presented the main characteristics and the rules of procedure of the UN4MUN approach. The workshop also had the distinguished participation of Mr. William Yotive, MUN coordinator of WFUNA. In a video conference, he presented to the participants how the UN4MUN approach captures the real structure and the decision-making process at the UN.
The UN4MUN Brazilian group who participated of the event in FACAMP.
The UN4MUN Brazil workshop not only brought the most prestigious Brazilian MUNs together, but also truly inspired them to see the value in adopting the UN4MUN approach. By the end of the workshop, the participants came up with a joint strategy to fully implement the approach in a 3-year period. In the first cycle, from June 2016-May 2017, the eight Brazilian MUNs will incorporate the structure of formal and informal consultations and focus the discussions on reaching consensus. They also decided on measures to share knowledge and exchange experiences in order to provide to every Brazilian MUN participant the truly Model UN experience.
The Secretariat of FAMUN 2016 is very excited in adopting the UN4MUN approach for the first time. The 4th edition of the conference will take place at the campus of FACAMP in the early September. We would like to leave here our invitation for everybody who wants to participate of FAMUN 2016. You are more than welcome!
