1 Position Paper Guide

Dear, Delegates.

Hereby we publish the Position Paper Guide of the WTO Summit 2014. We urge all
delegates to obey all these rules and we hope this guide will assist all delegate to proceed in
delegate preparation. May delegates find it useful to introduce you all the basic about how to
write position paper.

Regards,

WTO Secretariat
wtosecretariat@gmail.com

What is a position paper?

A position paper is a brief statement of the perspective of the country you are representing in
regards to the topic(s) in your committee. The purpose of the position paper is two-fold. Not
only does it allow the delegates an opportunity to clearly organise their research and define
their countrys policies, but it also permits other delegates to quickly determine their fellow
committee members stance on a topic.

What should be included in a position paper?

The main purpose of the position paper is to establish a countrys foreign policy on a certain
topic. Therefore, the bulk of the paper should be based on the research that each delegate will
have done on that topic. There are, however, a few essential technical parts of a position
paper. Before each topic, there should be four lines of information formatted in the following
manner:

Committee:
Topic:
Country:
School/University:
Delegate Name:
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The rest of the text will be the information on your countrys foreign policy; that being said,
the task of condensing a nations official position on any topic into a half-page document can
be quite daunting. For that reason, delegates must be concise and careful when selecting
information to include. Be sure to take into consideration the second purpose of the position
paper: allowing other delegates to quickly gain an understanding on your countrys position
in order to look for allies or predict your actions within the committee. Thus, try not to bog
down the paper with mundane detail. Instead, focus what you feel your country believes to be
the most important information. Here are a few suggestions of what might be included:

The names of any international agreements relevant to the topic signed by your nation.
Conversely, if your nation has not signed an important agreement for specific reasons, the
rationale for this might also be included.
- This will immediately allow countries to determine if your foreign policies are congruent
based on their status in regards to the agreement.
- The details of any topic-oriented international organisations of which your country is a
member another easy way to determine alliances.
- A brief description of how the problem addressed within the topic has affected your nation.
- A brief description of any programmes or actions taken by your nations government and/or
government-approved NGOs and IGOs in regards to the problem.
- How your country would like to see the questions posed by the topic (especially those found
within the committee guide) addressed in a resolution.
The most important thing to remember is to be concise and accurate theres nothing worse
than another delegate questioning the accuracy of your own foreign policy!
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Sample Position Paper

This is an example of what a position paper might look like. This is in no way a required
format or style, but rather a suggested model for the document. The only requirement is the
information before each topic.

Committee : World Health Organisation

Topic : Eradication of Polio
Country : The Democratic Republic of the Congo
School/University : Jendral Soedirman University
Delegate Name : Johny Deep

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), as a nation still dealing with the
detrimental affects of the Poliovirus (PV), believes that the eradication of polio is not only an
essential step towards reaching the Millennium goals established in 2000, but also an
attainable goal in and of itself. Globally, there are only two regions in which PV is still
considered endemic: the Central African and Central Asian regions. The DRC strongly holds
the belief that with concrete, realistic pledges of aid by all member states and the cooperation
of affected-nations governments with WHO and other UN initiated programmes, the disease
can be eliminated within this generation.

With the WHO as a leading partner in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI),
the DRC believes it is essential that all member states of the WHO keep their promises made
at the GPEIs establishment in 1988. Specifically, the DRC laments the increasing funding
gap for the programme, and calls upon all nations, especially the developed nations, to
increase their monetary support of the programme. The DRC also believes that an obstacle to
the goal of eradication is the lack of developed infrastructure. Therefore, the DRC also pleads
to developing nations to continue and augment their development aid to affected nations so as
to eliminate this hindrance. The DRC feels this is an essential aspect to any resolution passed
by the committee.
The DRC would also like to offer itself as a model for a successful implementation of
an eradication programme. No longer endemic within the DRCs borders, PV has decreased
due to the use of National Immunisation Days (NIDs) an effort that has begun in other
African nations, such as Nigeria and a social mobilisation programme. The promotion of
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these two elements is also necessary within a resolution. The major obstacle to the success of
these programmes in the DRC was the Second Congo War (1998-2003), during which 5 of
the 11 DRC districts were occupied by invading forces and much infrastructure was lost. Due
to this, the DRC feels that any resolution passed must contain some sort of reprimand for a
nation who prevents the continuation of any eradication programme.1

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Position Paper Guide by Oxford International MUN