MUN Position Paper

Country: Philippines
Committee: General Assembly: Second Committee
Delegate: Gabby Lagunas

Opening Statement
Why does food security matter? The answer is very simple, everyone needs food
to survive, we need food everyday, we all love food. For this reason is why the United
Nations created Food Security. They believe, as for everyone else should, that every
human being at all times should have all access available to safe, healthy nutritious
food. When the world food crisis happened back in 2007-2008 the WFS system was
ignored. The resulting food crisis caused a devastating effect to especially the poorest
of people. Basic food like rice, wheat, and corn prices went up significantly. What
happened to food security during this time? One of our basic rights was being abused.
Over decades, years ago we have known that we all deserve the right to have access to
food. By food prices going up, it denied food for many families. Many couldnt afford it.
Years have passed by and it still is a problem for many families living in severe poverty.

National Actions
Like other countries, the Philippines is one of many that suffer from poverty,
natural disasters, and has a corrupted government. It all starts with their government.
The Philippines is a presidential, representative, and democratic republic where
the president is both the head of state and the head of government, and they divide
equal power between the three branches, executive, legislative, and judicial. Dutere
was elected by the people because he claimed to end corruption. Nevertheless just
recently, according to Reuters article, in Feb 16, 2017 senator Antonio Trillanes
released in public, bank statements from 2006-2015 totaling $48 million in various
accounts that the president on the Philippines has not unaccounted for. The senator
spoke against the genuine and honestly on the President truly fighting against
corruption. Philippines is one of many to be affected by a corrupt government, not
enough is being done.Transparency International did a survey on emerging nations and
it stated that these countries are failing to tackle corruption because there is a lack of
transparency that permits illegal practices to continue while it cause more poverty. The
study reported that there needs to be more accountability on companies reporting
reliable information, i.e. they are not paying the correct taxes to the government. In
2012, about 19.2 percent of the population was estimated to live in extreme poverty,
according to the USAID. These people have limited access to electricity, water, health
and education services. The government is providing assistance to targeted families
living in extreme poverty, but is this enough?
UN Actions and International Actions
Something that has been done to decrease poverty is increasing social services
in the country.The food and Agriculture organization of United Nations helps many
countries. The FAOs priorities in the Philippines is to improve food and nutrition,
enhancing agricultural production and productivity, and ensure efficient and streamlined
supply chains. The Philippines suffers from both manmade and natural disasters issues.
The World food program has worked with the Philippines since 1968, but re-established
a their presence in 2006. They want to work closely with the government to focus on
increasing long term food and nutrition security and assisting people for preparation on
serious natural disasters.

Solutions
What is the main issue here? The government is affecting the Philippines. If you
don't have a strong government then that causes economic issues, that later affects the
people, making them poor, causing extreme poverty, that then causes people to get
associated with drugs. It eventually then causes lots of other problems. Fix one simple
thing as have, the government needs to be watched over. Poverty can also be solved.
We need help from bigger countries that are succeeding. With the UNs help we can fix
this problem. Less corruption, less poverty.

Citations
Works Cited
"Extreme Poverty in the Philippines." U.S. Agency for International Development. N.p.,
16 Sept. 2014. Web. 22 Feb. 2017.

"FAO Country Profiles:Philippines." FAO Country Profiles:Philippines. N.p., n.d.

Web. 22 Feb. 2017.

"Philippin Senator Accuses Duterte of Stashing Millions of Dollars." N.p., 16 Feb.

2017. Web.

"The Philippines." Philippines | World Food Programme. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Feb.
2017.

Shah, Milan Kendall. "Multi-nationals in Emerging Nations Fail to Tackle

Corruption, Poverty: Anti-graft Group." Reuters. Thomson Reuters, 11 July 2016. Web.
22 Feb. 2017.