Munapest 2021 | 6-10, April, 2021 | Budapest, Hungary |
Contact us: info@munapest.com

Innovate & Inspire

When it comes to organising our conferences, we always seek to inject inspiration and innovation into our conference. That is why we strive to learn from our peers, as well as our own mistakes, which is why we always seek to reach better solutions for the challenges lying ahead of us.
When it comes to realism, creativity, and engaging topics, we have to take into consideration that solely simulating bodies of the United Nations, as well as discussing topics already talked through by appointed professionals, may not lead to a sufficient educational outcome. This is true as, on the one hand, today’s world order is highly influenced by actors both above and under the state-level, whom we must include in the discussion. On the other hand, we have to put issues into a different perspective to offer our participants an opportunity to resolve issues of the 21st Century. That is why at Munapest, we always felt that we must not lean back and be satisfied with simulating the UN as it has been for decades. In order to maintain dynamism and realism in our conference, we aimed to make it as life-like as possible, which has led to many new aspects taken into consideration. As our delegations have travelled around the world, we gathered knowledge from all the MUN societies, to whom we are very grateful, and tried to combine the best parts of the innovations with our own ideas. That has led to a system which is becoming more coherent by every year it is tested.

MUN Redefined: Immersive & Dynamic

The cornerstone of our redefined MUN is the idea of “Interconnectivity”. But what is interconnectivity? To put it simply, it is a system that allows us to inject a small fragment of reality into our conference. The expression indicates that every action taken by a participant, a committee or a council (by us the latter two are collectively referred to as chambers) may have an effect on any represented state, any chambers or on the main narrative of the conference itself. Therefore, when it comes to determining chambers and topics of the conference, we not only have to take into consideration the relevance and thrillingness of certain issues, but also their connectedness to other such topics that we would like participants to discuss. The whole conference, therefore, has to have one big narrative- let it be a continent or a major dynamic in world affairs- to keep the whole conference leading into one direction. This is first and foremost an opportunity, but also a burden. It is a burden because such major chains of events are limited in number. Through Interconnectivity your actions are not solely confined into your chamber but it might as well bring unforeseeable consequences in other chambers or countries. To make our conference more dynamic and engaging the System of Interconnectivity is further supported by various other elements that are present in our conference.
This is one of the main reasons we include the “Crisis” which serves at many levels at once. The “Diverging Reality” concept gives us a chance to connect the dots before the conference even starts, laying down the grounds on which participants will have the chance to test their knowledge in previously unexpected situations. Furthermore, with the “Reactive Crisis”, delegates are given a chance to handle certain issues interactively and to understand the magnitude of a single decision by calculating possible outcomes that they might have to face after they have made a decision. Having this reaction-based system with minor escalations during the conference allows us to engage states and participants that might not be sufficiently active, rewarding those who are acting wisely and to punish the rash and irrational decision-makers.
When it comes to solving crises, cooperation and steps taken by a chamber might not be enough, or might even be counterproductive. If a state has difficulties convincing a whole chamber of their opinion, they can always turn to bilateral or smaller scale multilateral collaborations, those of which could end up in “Treaties” being written with which they are capable to tackle their individual or mutual challenging situations.
In a heavily monetized world money is a variable which should not be left unnoticed. With the inclusion of a Financial System into the conference, the stakes of each and every decision are made higher, and delegates will be responsible for the investment of their respective states’ financial resources into the most promising deals of the conference.
For delegations to coordinate their efforts to tackle the many challenges we throw on them, we established a position within their delegation solely responsible for the coordination, communication and representation of the whole delegation. The group of participants from a new body called the “Diplomatic Corps”.
Of course, in any established formation such as delegations, one may not have as much information and knowledge to have the same weight during decision-making. This led us to the creation of a “Hierarchy” within delegations.
For participants to be fully informed of all events at all times, the “Press Corps” was created whose task is to be the eyes and ears of the conference and let no event and no person stay undetected. This year it is further innovated, now including interactive media stakeouts with participants and daily press briefings.

Our Reforms

Diplomatic Corps

Economic System

Press Corps

Interconnectivity

Crisis System

Treaties

Hierarchy

With the topics and chambers being interconnected, it is up to a small proportion of participants to keep the delegates of their represented states focused on their own agendas, whilst also serving the bigger picture and the main interests of their represented states. The Diplomatic Corps is an independent body, introduced during Munapest 2019, that serves the purpose of coordinating the efforts of all members of their states’ delegation. This enables them to achieve a higher level of communication between states and also leads to a higher degree of interconnectedness. These delegates will serve as “grey eminences” throughout the conference, gathering information from lower hierarchy delegates, helping as a head delegate, making decisions, disseminating information, and generally speaking for and coordinating the efforts of the delegation as a whole.

As the economic backbone of the conference, representatives of states will have the task of preserving the limited resources of their country to the most crucial projects their Delegations’ might want to achieve. Throughout the conference states will have the opportunity to aid allies or even withdraw funding from several projects taken under consideration during Munapest 2020. Delegations will have the chance to support each other and solve global problems not just with words but with tangible resources as well.

The role of media and news agencies have probably never been this important before; the way they present situations and topics can affect the moves diplomats and politicians will make in the future. Being the eyes and ears of the conference, Press Members are tasked with not letting any relevant story go undetected. Press Members are, during the simulation, employees of a News Agency, those of which have been carefully selected according to the certain topic and relevant states at hand. Reporters in the Press Corps will have the chance to report, evaluate, criticize, give an opinion, or even bend the truth a little about the progress of Munapest, its countries action, and a given chamber’s decisions. They will have to work to cover the events of the Conference from their Agency’s point of view, providing just the right amount of bias. Depending on the Agency, Press Members may also have to support some States’ interests through their reporting. This year Munapest 2020 will introduce media stakeouts and daily press briefings to reflect the lifelike environment of our conference.

What is interconnectivity? To put it simply, it is a system that allows us to inject a small fragment of reality into our conference. While committed to resolving the common issues of your chamber one must be mindful of how it would affect outcomes and your country’s policy in other chambers. Through Interconnectivity, your actions are not solely confined into your chamber, but rather could bring unforeseeable consequences in other chambers or countries. To make our conference more dynamic and engaging, the System of Interconnectivity is further supported by various other elements that are present in our conference: the Press Corps reports, evaluates, criticizes, and gives an opinion throughout the whole conference, the Financing System allows countries to aid one another more than just with words and the Diplomatic Corps, introduced in Munapest in 2019, to boost the coordination and lobbying activity of a state’s delegation.

Changes and developments to real-life situations are sometimes inevitable. Therefore the introduction of the main narrative, connecting each chamber, allows us to involve the highest number of states into debates and discussions. This obstacle is overcome through the concepts of diverging reality and crisis scenarios. Diverging Reality enables us to build a narrative for our conference a few weeks before it even begins, creating a unique, life-like situation throughout the conference. There could be situations when chambers might not be able to contribute to the most exciting topics, or it could be some states might feel that their voice and decisions are inconsequential within the chamber. Thanks to our team of young experts in the field of international relations, law, economics, and security- those of whom are eager and ready to connect the dots for these occasions- will artificially create situations which in real life might not occur, but are valid and believable scenarios. Chambers while discussing their topics might be hit with a crisis that would cause a twist initiating a change in their line of thought, redefine alliances, and adapt to the new setting laid ahead of them.

State interests do not always require the consensus of an entire Chamber, but rather the agreement of two or more States. Delegates will be able to achieve their goals and gain resources, as well as support possible allies by signing bilateral or multilateral Treaties. However, only a limited amount of resources will be at the disposal of Delegations - money will often be in short supply. Furthermore, resources will not only be required for signing treaties but also for dealing with unexpected Crisis events, so Delegates must be mindful of their spending!

States represented in multiple Chambers will be considered Delegations that have common aims and resources. Each Chamber will have a designated level of representation, so Participants could be Foreign Ministers or Ambassadors to the UN, to name a few possibilities.
Being at the top of a delegation’s Hierarchy will come with many rights but also responsibilities. A Delegation’s top Representative (a Head Delegate) will be the only one authorised to approve Bilateral and multilateral Treaties in the name of their State. The Head Delegate will be the highest-ranking Representative present at the conference at the given time period.