Attendees at the annual Empower Conference, hosted by Reach out to Asia (ROTA), had the opportunity to learn about MUN Impact and to engage in some spirited discussions about how to develop an action-oriented plan of action to support the SDGS. Conference attendees, hailing from as far at Tansanzia, Palestine, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Nepal, Kenya and of course, Qatar, spent 90 minutes exploring the tools and resources on the MUN Impact webpage, followed by an hour of discussion of how to develop a plan of action to support a particular SDG and target.
Using the MUN Impact planning tool, teams of three or four students developed a plan of action tied to their SDG. They had to identify potential obstacles, necessary permissions and authorizations, who their plan would benefit, and how members of their team would be accountable. Through their discussions a number of initial ideas emerged, such as raising awareness around the issue of public sanitation and toilet facilities for migrant populations, to noise pollution affecting our marine environment in Qatar. Participants discovered that even simple, targeted issues had complex webs of interaction and overlapping SDG targets. The conversations were rich and nuanced, and the participants, bringing their own diverse life experiences to the discussions, resulted in animated and spirited discussions.
This was the first opportunity for MUN Impact to share their planning tool, and we learned a lot about how our planning document could be improved. Workshop leaders Lisa Martin, Emmy Josefson, and Fatima El Mahdi had a great time meeting the participants at the Empower conference and look forward to more opportunities to share MUN Impact with empowered youth in the region!
