Students attend the UN Youth Australia Development Summit
On Friday 16 June, a group of Year 10 and 11 students attended the annual United Nations Youth Summit at UWA.
This jam-packed day began with a panel of speakers who discussed and debated topics exploring Sub Saharan Africa and the recently published UN Sustainability Goals. Enlightened with this new information, we dispersed into small groups where we debated different points of view to questions pertaining to past and present development in Africa, especially the effects of colonisation.
The next section of our day was the Interactive Problem Solving (IPS) which gave us greater insight into the way countries interacted with each other. IPS is a simulation where groups, acting as countries, negotiate and declare war upon one another due to conflict of interests such as the placement of oil pipes into neighbouring lands. This exercise enabled us to understand the difficulties the UN faces when countries negotiate issues. This proved to be a very valuable experience, allowing us to realise how quickly situations of global conflict/interaction/negotiation can get out of control.
This opportunity also allowed us to meet like-minded young, passionate people from all around Western Australia. Run by university students, it was easy to communicate and debate topics with the leaders. It was an amazing opportunity that we would recommend to anyone who is interested in the United Nations or current global issues. A massive thank you to Mrs Ormesher who provided us with this eye opening and insightful experience.
Genavieve McGillivray (10 Columba)