October 15th, 2019 | In the Social, Humanitarian, Cultural committee, there is debate over whether plans proposed by larger countries are truly looking at the needs of the countries they are setting out to aid. Proposed by the United States and Israel, the GHOST plan has been under scrutiny for its lack of variation for each country’s needs. The plan sets out to lend textbooks, teachers (specifically female), and other resources from developed countries to those in need. Aid would be distributed based on a survey that would focus on the culture of the region.
The main faults of this plan proposed by countries like Botswana, Sweden, and Iraq have been its lack of focus specifically on women, as the plan seeks to empower women in developed countries not the women of the countries in need, lack of security, for there are no specific clauses to help women in danger of going to school, and the possibility of dependency the countries receiving aid may have.
Poland has backed the HELP plan which focuses more on the bigger picture. The HELP plan stands for Health, Education, Learning, and Personal. Seeing as though the theme for this conference is Water Security, the Health portion of the HELP plan focuses on aiding countries to have more access to clean water, hygiene, and antibiotics, an aspect not discussed by other plans. The Education portion also focuses on the security behind getting an education, as this can often discourage women from getting an education. Learning works with what temporary resources would be provided to countries in need, for the time being, while infrastructure is being built. Finally, the Personal portion focuses mainly on women pursuing careers after getting an education, and in turn helping the country’s economy.
Unlike plans proposed by larger nations, the HELP plan makes it a goal to not have a country be dependent on larger nations, seeing as though funding for the plan is coming from NGOs. While larger countries may believe that they are the only saving grace for developing countries, alternate plans presented in SOCHUM prove that progress and development can be achieved without the hand downs and donations.