NMUN•DC PREPARATIONS
Research Areas – How to Prepare
The key to being a successful NMUN delegation, and a quality overall conference, is thorough preparation. The NMUN Delegate Preparation Guide is an excellent resource. Although specifically prepared for the NMUN-NY conference, delegates participating in any of NMUN’s conferences will benefit from the suggestions for researching:
• The structure and history of the United Nations
• Your assigned member state
• Research your committee
• Your role in the committee
• Your agenda topics beyond what is written in the background guides
This research will help you prepare your position paper outlining your member state’s policies towards the agenda topics.
Preparation Resources
In addition to the NMUN Delegate Preparation Guide, use the resources compiled for each specific committee by our volunteer staff. Committee Background Guides, available on-line 6 September, include information on each committee and topics to be discussed as well as an extensive annotated bibliography.
These resources are a beginning for individual research to learn about your assigned country and its perspective on the topics. NMUN highly recommends extensive use of academic books, scholarly journals, newspaper articles, and official documents or other literature provided by bodies associated with the United Nations. Though often times very helpful, delegates are advised to evaluate their on-line sources carefully. Some sources which have proved useful in the past include:
- UNITED NATIONS
- UN BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM
Additional Preparation Resources
- Non-governmental Organizations (particularly those accredited by the UN)
- Country reports and data published by international or regional organizations such as the World Bank, WHO, OECD, APEC, etc.
- General socio-economic data: the CIA World Factbook has served delegates in previous years in gaining a first overview of a particular member state
Delegations requesting to represent NGOs are – in addition to consulting their NGOs Web site – also advised to use the sources above to gain more insight into the issues (and different country positions) on the topics. |
and refer to it first for answers and resources. 
