THIMUN Qatar hosted its first MUN Impact Student Summit on March 17. The gathering of MUN leaders from across Qatar met to plan ways that Model UN in the country could begin to focus on action in support of the SDGs, to move the words off of resolutions and into ACTION. Thirty seven students spent the morning reviewing the mission and vision of MUN Impact, and exploring resources on the MUN Impact website.
Students were then randomly selected and put into groups of three and given an SDG. Working quickly through the MUN Impact Planning tool, they step by step devised a hypothetical action plan with a generous and very hypothetical QAR 20,000 budget ($5,500 USD) They had to locate and identify the Targets related to their SDG, then link one to an issue in their local community. They then brainstormed ideas on how a student-initiated campaign or project might lead to the development of a successful event, and had to identify obstacles, key stakeholders, permissions and timelines necessary for an event to take place.
After lunch, students self-selected themselves into groups around areas of mutual interest. The process of identifying a Goal, a Target and linking that to a community issue was repeated, with a longer opportunity to lay out a plan of action, which included spirited discussion on what the goal of a program would look like, necessary approvals and permissions likely needed from school administrators, and a step by step timeline on how the program would organized. This was the first in-depth opportunity to have students work with the MUN Impact Planning Tool, helping us to refine the tool as a user-friendly tool for planning SDG-related campaigns and projects.
After four hours of intense activity, participants circled back around to talk about the larger relevance MUN Impact might have in their club, and in the THIMUN Qatar community at large. And the room became electrified with discussions about action, inclusion and general agreement that everyone should be involved in promoting the SDGs in Qatar. The closing minutes reminded everyone that this generation, when given the opportunity, is a generation of ACTION, and in this case, ACTION to support the SDGs.
