Click here to read the NHSMUN 2011 World Bank Background Guide

The World Bank blog is now available

Topic 1: Emergency Management — Natural Disasters

The World Bank’s Global Risk Analysis of Natural Disaster Hotspots (GRANDH) research group has identified six of the most endemic and damaging natural hazards: earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, floods, drought, and cyclones/hurricanes (Dilley et al). Each year, these natural hazards cause thousands of deaths, millions of injuries, and billions in economic losses around the world. In response, billions of dollars in humanitarian relief, emergency loans, reconstruction grants, and development aid are expended annually. EM-DAT, a global disaster database maintained by the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) in Brussels, recorded upwards of 600 disasters globally in 2009 and reports that disaster frequency appears to be increasing (“CRED Projects”). Yet, efforts to reduce the risks of natural disasters remain largely uncoordinated and ignored across different hazard types. Moreover, current efforts do not necessarily focus on areas at highest risk of disaster.

Disasters constantly loom as a major threat for the poor. With each building, field, business, and area of land destroyed, the progress of development for organizations like the World Bank regresses. Accumulated investments in developing countries are thus ineffective as economic systems begin to break down. The destructive potency of these natural catastrophes combined with the vulnerability and unawareness of low income countries have often caused struggling nations to stumble further, as seen in the December 2004 tsunami which killed over 125,000 Indonesian people, while displacing another 650,000 (“Natural Disasters…”).

Topic 2: Access to Water

The world’s population has tripled since the end of the 20th century. Within the next fifty years, the global populace will increase by another 40 to 50 percent. As a result, water resource usage has grown six-fold and continues to inflate at an alarming rate. The World Water Council calculates that water shortages will rise by 40% by 2030. (“Water Crisis”). The spike in population growth, along with the development of lower-income countries, will greatly escalate the demand for water and could have serious ramifications on the planet.

Target 10 of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is to “halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe water and sanitation” (“IEG Report”). Thus, improving water access will play a critical factor in combating extreme poverty, hunger, reducing child mortality, improving environmental sustainability, and other similar MDGs. This topic will challenges the World Bank to face the growing damages from climate variance, worsening trends of water protection and pollution, and mounting shortages of water. Delegates must find additional ways to meet the immediate needs of countries that lack water, while work to improve access and protection of water resources.