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Expo 2020 Dubai: Students get to be 'UN diplomats' in 3-day event

Dubai - EXPOMUN will allow tudents to experience the vast number of national pavilions and participate in special diplomatic activities

A record-breaking Model United Nations (MUN) conference will be held during the Expo 2020 Dubai — the first such event to be conducted during a world fair.

'EXPOMUN' is expected to bring together over 120 nationalities of young future leaders and over 200 Model UN club members across the UAE, including a large percentage of Emirati students, the United Nations Association in UAE announced.

EXPOMUN will run three days and introduce delegates to one day of real-world diplomacy within the Expo, allowing students to experience the vast number of national pavilions and participate in special diplomatic activities across Dubai. The conference will culminate on the United Nations’ declared International Day of Education with an EXPOMUN Awards Gala and VVIP Dinner.

MUN, created at the time of the UN’s formation in 1945, is popular globally as an extracurricular educational simulation of the UN’s work. Middle school to university students, aged between 13 and 21, undertake experiential learning around international relations and key global issues.

Eric Robson, Madagascar’s ambassador to the USA until 2019 and currently the executive director of UAE-born Arab Youth Venture Foundation and producer of the conference, said: “In a few short months, Dubai will welcome young global citizens to the world of diplomacy at EXPOMUN. The delegates will be exposed to and embark on defending national positions on a wide array of issues and embark on collaboration towards mutually beneficial resolutions through research, lobbying, debates and negotiations.”

Model UN is renowned for helping inquisitive, motivated youth hone a plethora of critical skills that help feed leadership and analytical mindsets towards compromise and consensus building with the underlying theme of helping to ‘improve the world’.

In the UAE, up to a dozen MUN school-run conferences are held annually, with participants drawn from nearly 40 MUN school clubs at the secondary and university levels across the nation. Globally, there are over 10,000 MUN clubs boasting of over 100,000 members.