Honorable guests have the floor

What an inspiring opening ceremony! International careers, gender roles, youth commitment, passion, education, diseases due to food shortage, life experiences in developing countries: many topics were discussed yesterday during the first day of the biggest international model UN conference in Italy.

All these issues were the subjects of the guests’ speeches.

The first one has been Fernanda Guerrieri, FAO representative, guest and host of this event. She said to the cameras that it was “such a multicultural and international event”, and that she was extremely proud to welcome all the delegations in her institution.

Similarly, Filippo la Rosa, diplomatic counselor of the major of Rome Alemanno, showed his enthusiasm for Rome MUN 2013 by recalling the weeks he spent in New York and Brussels while he was getting familiar with official diplomacy through simulations like this.

This excitement was shared by Roberto Costantini, currently director of the International Relations Department of Luiss University in Rome. He defined Rome MUN 2013 as a fascinating educational tool, a valuable way to put into practice what has been learnt from the books.

Staffan Domingo de Mistura

Maybe the most appreciated and moving intervention was the one made by Staffan Domingo De Mistura, Undersecretary of State for Foreign Affairs. He charmed the audience with jokes as well as personal souvenirs. However - especially during the Q&A session - he reported his own working experiences in conflict zones, such as Croatia, Ethiopia, Somalia and Russia.

Referring to his speech, CNN International has asked him if the fact that the young generation has more “tools” (University courses, MUNs, etc.) to get to know about international cooperation will lead to a larger number of people involved in this field.

According to him, if more people have easy access to information they will be surely more sensitive to problems international organizations deal with.

As Dr. De Mistura said, a high level of enthusiasm and commitment has already been shown by all delegations yesterday. Will that last throughout the next days too? 

THIS POST IS WRITTEN BY THE ROMEMUN JOURNALISTS' TEAM

Caput mundi of Diplomacy

Prof. Federico Argentieri

Rome is the "caput mundi" once again, this time of diplomacy. 

This is what has been said by the participants of the "Rome International" panel. 

Giorgio Bartolomucci, president of the annual Festival of Diplomacy, has chosen Rome as the host city for this event since its beginning because of its multicultural environment and the possibility to get in touch with ambassadors. 

Professor of Contemporary History and International Politics Federigo Argentieri also confirmed that, given the fact that Rome is the only capital in the world where every international institution has a representation. 

To keep this situation ahead, he also highlighted the importance of young people's role. In particular, he said that learning from the past is the key to improve current international diplomacy.

ARTICLE WRITTEN BY THE ROMEMUN JOURNALISTS'S TEAM

FAO welcomes RomeMUN Delegates

Today the FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization) building hosted the Opening Ceremony of the 2013 RomeMUN. In the following days, delegates from all over the world will act as diplomats from different countries, supporting their policies, sharing opinions and contributing to the achievement of global MDGs.

The youth involved in the RomeMUN negotiation game is showing great interest in the main issues of this year’s conference. Walking in the hallways of the FAO building, the atmosphere you can feel is marked by the delegates’ enthusiasm and willingness to contribute to and play an active part in solving problems concerning the whole world.

“The world we want” emerged as the main topic of the meeting and many opinions have been expressed by speakers and participants. The debate ranged from preventing war in developing and least developed countries, to the reduction of the world gap between “the rich and the poor, the black and the white”, as stated by FAO Goodwill Ambassador Al Bano Carrisi. Particularly, the eradication of hunger and the struggle against spreading diseases linked to malnutrition has been addressed in depth by participants and panellists.

Delegates were impressed by the opening ceremony guests and organisation. These young and determined people are eager to cooperate for achieving a better future. Delegates found further motivation in the speech by FAO Cabinet Director Fernanda Guerrieri “If you want to go quickly, go alone, but if you want to go far away, go together”. Moreover, participants showed interest in Italian-Swedish diplomat Staffan De Mistura’s intervention. He shared his experiences in overcoming difficulties, working together with foreign diplomats. The core message that received general appreciation among delegates was that international cooperation and intercultural dialogue are key to solve current problems, even though in some cases it seems that no bridge can be built between conflicting parties.

 POST WRITTEN BY THE JOURNALISTS' TEAM

RomeMUN 2013- 1200 young people to act as world leaders

Rome (March 7, 2013)-- 1,200 young people from all over the world will assume the role of the UN member states representatives to discuss issues of international importance at the fourth edition of Rome Model United Nations (RomeMUN), opening today in the Plenary Hall of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The participants, coming from 108 different countries, will debate topics like the fight against hunger and poverty, women's rights, issues related to sustainable development and the right to basic education for all and will have the opportunity to meet leading experts of the national and international panorama: Corrado Clini, Environment Minister in the Monti cabinet, Eve Crowley, FAO Deputy Director General for Gender, Equity and Rural Employment, Stefano Vella, Director of Department of Medicine Institute of Health, Luis Jimenez-McInnis, Special Adviser to IFAD President, and Staffan de Mistura, Under-Secretary of State in the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The event is sponsored by the UN agencies in the agro-food pole in Rome: FAO, IFAD and the World Food Programme, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Representation of the European Commission in Italy, some Italian regions, and was made possible thanks to the invaluable contribution of many private entities.

The Giovani nel Mondo Association, together with other sponsors like Education First, Bonduelle, Giorgio Tesi Vivai and Hotel Villa Mercede, put at stake 100 scholarships to facilitate the participation of young people with great resumes, who otherwise would not have been able to attend the event.

This year's edition is going to evolve around the Millennium  Development Goals, the eight international development targets aimed at encouraging development by improving social and economic conditions in the world's poorest countries.

About half of the participants are from abroad (from Afghanistan to Egypt, Ghana, Brazil, Uzbekistan and Nicaragua) and are united in their desire to be the leading actors of RomeMUN, experience the simulation to the full, reach agreements and solutions to problems that the big actors of the international diplomacy struggle to solve, learn each other, make friends, share experiences and dreams.

The delegates' activity, the workshops and the debates will be described and documented by other young students who will assume the role of journalists and reproduce the work of some major international networks as CNN, BBC, RaiNews, Al Jazeera, France 24, Russia Today.

Summary of the program and conference venues:

7 March - from 9.00 to 17.30 FAO, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla

8 March - from 9.30 to 19.00 Luiss, Center of American Studies, Hall of the Parliamentary Groups

9 March - from 9.30 to 19.00 Luiss Guido Carli, Viale Romania 32

10 March - from 9.30 to 19.00 Luiss Guido Carli, Viale Romania 32

11 March - from 9.00 to 13.30 Eataly, Piazzale XII ottobre 1492

Giovani nel Mondo Press Office

Super Mario- the RomeMUN mascot

Interview with Daniela Conte- president of Giovani nel Mondo

Daniela Conte at RomeMUN 2011

As most of you know, RomeMUN is powered by the Giovani nel Mondo non-profit association. Even if the last days were extremely busy for the RomeMUN staff, Daniela Conte, president of Giovani nel Mondo, agreed to give us a small interview.



How will this year's edition of RomeMUN be special, in comparison with the past ones? 

This year RomeMUN will gather together 1000 students from all over the world, becoming  the biggest UN Model in Europe and among the biggest ones in the world.

How has the RomeMUN impacted your life? 

Thanks to RomeMUN project I discovered first the immense potentialities that young people from all over the world have, it is impressive to see hundreds of youth who still be inspired by the UN values even if their daily lives is affected from poverty, war and uncertainty of the future. I figure out that beyond those students there is an energy strong enough to reach the solutions for the most important international issues of our time.

What were the most memorable moments for you? 

Each year for me the most memorable moment is the opening ceremony when all delegates are seated together in the same room with all their hopes in their hand, waiting for living one of the most important moments of their lives.

What’s the most important thing do you think the participants gain from this experience? 

The delegates learn a lot: effective public speaking skills, how to negotiate with many people at the same time, intercultural communications and comprehension, insight of the UN mechanisms and procedures, team working and leaderships skills. in some cases RomeMUN totally changes their point of views favoring a more global and complete idea of the world around them.

How do you think Model UN prepares people for their future?

 As I have told before, Model UN gives first an idea of what does it mean to work for an international organizations so it is an unique experience for those students interested in working for UN in the future, but more generally is a way to learn that negotiation is a way of life, not only in international affairs but in many other aspects of our daily lives.

Are there any notable alumni from the program? 

Among our notable alumni there is the prince of Luxembourg (the youngest one) but many participants have already started their career in the UN or similar organizations an we are sure that some of them will become one days the leaders of our future.

What do you hope for the future of RomeMUN? 

We do hope to reach in few years the size of 5000 delegates and also to establish a more fruitful relationships with the most relevant institutions, both public and private so having the possibility to offer an increasing numbers of scholarships for those students who are very willing to participate but have not sufficient means to cover their participation costs,

Meet Super Mario- The RomeMUN mascot