Committee: WHO

Topic: Malnutrition and Food Security in Developing Countries

Country: Guinea
Country Delegate: Carolina Molina
School: Houston Academy for International Studies

Humanity has faced deadly diseases that have killed many throughout their journey. The
bubonic plague is an example of what an illness could do to the people. We all know that it killed
about 1/3 of Europes population. Because of the lack of health systems, almost nothing could be
done to stop it. In order to prevent events like these from happening, organizations like the
WHO, also known as the World Health Organization, were created. The WHO is a branch of the
United Nations that concerns itself with matters pertaining to health. It began on April 7th 1948,
the day the WHOs constitution began enforcing the practices they believed in. The WHOs
primary role is to direct and coordinate international health within the United Nations system.
They do this by promoting health, providing leadership on critical health matters, making a
research agenda, setting norms and standards, creating ethical policies based on evidence,
providing support, and monitoring the health of the people. It contains more than 7,000 people
from 150 different countries including medical doctors, public health specialists, scientists, and
economists among others. Just like the bubonic plague, malnutrition is an important topic that
affects about 795 million people, and kills about 21,000 people every dayone person every
four seconds!
Malnutrition: the unhealthy condition that results from not eating enough food or not eating
enough healthy food. Merriam Websters Dictionary.
Food Security: when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to
maintain a healthy and active life. World Food Summit
As the delegate of Guinea, it is my responsibility to inform all others about the conflicts my
country has. As of 2014, Guinea is number 28 in the world rank of number of deaths caused by
malnutrition. Since the year 2000, the country has experienced socio-economic adversity,
governance conflicts, and limited economic problems. Not only this, but political instability,
internal displacement, deforestation, floods, and an irregular rainfall pattern threaten food
security in Guinea. An example of this is the haven that Guineas forest provides for refugees
from neighboring countries like Liberia, Cote dIvore and Sierra Leone. Because of the problems
within these countries, hundreds of thousands of people migrate to Guinea, decreasing food
security. A recent food security survey has stated that 40% of the inhabitants are food-insecure.
Another problem is the recent Ebola epidemic that affected agricultural and market services.
Along its border with Senegal, at least 16 markets were closed, and prices rose. On May 2013,
Guinea joined the SUN (Scaling Up Nutrition) movement to help with the health of the people.
In addition, the government created the Food and Nutrition division to coordinate malnutrition
activities.

In order to solve problems such as malnutrition and food-insecurity, we must think for the
future, and find ways that will benefit every country. Guineas malnutrition affects other
countries and vice versa. Thus Guinea proposes for countries to increase the amount of money
from coutries budget that goes towards health. This way, people will have a better immune
system, making them more capable of fighting infections found in local foods. Also, a portion of
the money will go towards existing food programs or will be used to create some. In these
programs, countries will come together to share information about food availability and
accessibility. The goal will be food security; to ensure access to economical sustenance. Within
this program, there will be a branch that will be dedicated to record environmental, economic,
and political factors that affect the countrys health. Meetings will be held to share and discuss
information in order to keep the program running.

Works Cited
Analysis, Humanitarian News. Ebola hits West Africa food security. September 2014.
16 January 2015.
Movement, SUN. Guinea-Scaling Up Nutrition. October 2015. 17 January 2015.
Programme, World Food. Guinea. 2015. Electronic. 17 January 2015.
WHO. About WHO . n.d. 15 January 2015.
. Global Food Security. 2011. Electronic. 2015 January 2015.