Welcome to World Health Organization
Dear Esteemed Delegates,
It is my pleasure to welcome you to the World Health Organization at the twenty-eighth session of the Ivy League Model United Nations Conference! My name is Ashley Bernard and I am honored to serve as your chair.
My intense love affair with Model UN began in this very committee 5 years ago and I’ve never looked back since. I am now a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences studying Political Science and International Development.
When I’m not eating, studying, debating, and/or laughing with my fellow Penn International Affairs members, I can be found practicing sweet moves with my Latin dance troupe, planning trips to exotic locations (current obsession: New Caledonia), and expanding my culinary repertoire. I proudly refer to Philly as my hometown, however, I was born in the Dirty Jerz and was soon after transplanted to the sandy beaches of Miami and Haiti before returning up north.
Our committee this year will focus on two very important topics: Neglected Tropical Diseases and Illicit Organ Trade and Transplant Tourism.
I look forward to hearing all of your creative ideas and solutions to these problems and highly recommend familiarizing yourselves with the histories and complexities of the topics as they apply to your individual countries and regional blocs in addition to keeping an out for any related media articles in the weeks leading up to what will inevitably be an incredible weekend.
Feel free to contact our lovely USG – Natasha Gabbay – at any time if you have any questions regarding our committee, ILMUNC, or Penn. I can’t wait to meet you all at ILMUNC XXVIII!
All the best,
Ashley A. Bernard
Chair, World Health Organization
Ivy League Model United Nations Conference XXVIII
Topic Summaries
Topic A: Neglected Tropical Diseases
The World Health Organization has decided to focus much-needed attention on this topic, as the global health community has ignored these diseases for so long. Although most tropical diseases are not commonly found in developed countries, they plague the populations of many of the world’s least developed countries. In its effort to improve global health, WHO has labeled these diseases “targets of opportunity” and allocated additional funding to their eradication. Delegates to this committee will be charged with the task of determining ways to minimize the effects of tropical diseases, whether those include increasing the availability of health care, developing better treatment options, or designing an eradication campaign. Ideally, these solutions will result in more productive economies and a better quality of life for those living in communities affected by these diseases.
Topic B: Trafficking of Organs
Globalization has brought increased trade, productivity, and ease of communication and travel to the international community. However, this process has also resulted in the steady increase of the international trade in human organs. Recent years have seen a greater demand on the world market for organs, due to increasing health problems in developed countries and the greater ease of trafficking. Consequently, more traffickers have entered the market to take advantage of this financial opportunity. However, organ trafficking often takes advantage of the most vulnerable populations of a society, including the most impoverished citizens, the infirm, and the elderly. Individual countries have stepped up their legislation efforts in many instances, but the global nature of the organ trafficking system necessitates a global solution. Delegates to the World Health Organization must work together to develop international protocols to protect victims and prevent trafficking, as well as to establish best practices for national legislatures to use in drafting their own laws to stop trafficking within their borders.