You will represent your assigned country in this debate and must accurately present and argue your case using detailed information about your assigned country. Each country will make a statement of its position on the resolution at the start of the debate. Countries will then have 5 minutes to caucus and come up with new resolutions which will then be debated.

You will be expected to turn in on the day of the debate notes taken and written answers to the positions questions below (this may be done by country) as well as a comment sheet on issues raised during the debate (individual).

Positions: You must clearly define and give reasons -- data -- for your (as a representative of your country's interests, not you personally!) position.

1. Where do you stand now in terms of ZPG?
2. Is population growth or lack of growth causing problems economically? Environmentally?
3. Are there factors such as disease or cultural shifts that are changing your rate of population growth at present?
4. What is in the best interest of your country for the next 5 years? 10 years? 50 years? Why?
5. What are you willing to do? What is it possible for you to ask your people to do? What can you not ask your people to do? Why?
6. Do you believe this is a matter that should be addressed according to the rules of sovereign nations (autonomously) or as an international community?
7. Do you want to petition to modify the resolution so that it conforms more closely with your position or to achieve consensus?

Data sources:

1. US Census Bureau demographic data by country has most of the population data listed below
2. UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is an international development agency that promotes the right of every woman, man and child to enjoy a life of health and equal opportunity. UNFPA supports countries in using population data for policies and programmes to reduce poverty and to ensure that every pregnancy is wanted, every birth is safe, every young person is free of HIV/AIDS, and every girl and woman is treated with dignity and respect. Quoted from their web site This site has excellent and detailed data.
3. United Nations CyberSchoolBus has a broad variety of facts about all its member countries -- keep checking the dropdown menus on the blank graphs because they give varied options on population, economics, and social factors
4. US Census Bureau population pyramids by country will show you population pyramids for 2005, 2025 and 2050 for many countries of the world
5. The Economist country profiles Excellent resource for a wide variety of facts about a country; includes a list of recent articles in The Economist (I have back issues if you want to see them.)
6. The Nationmaster.com Great source of all kinds of statistics. For this assignment, go to the third paragraph and click on individual countries.
7. CIA: The World Fact Book

Demographic data:

1. Population
2. Population pyramids for 2005, 2025 and 2050
3. Population density ( per square kilometer)
4. Birth rate & death rate
5. Population growth rate
6. Total fertility rate (TFR = the number of children a woman will give birth to in a lifetime)
7. Life expectancy: male & female
8. Infant mortality rate per 1000 (by male & female if possible)
9. Child mortality rate per 1000 (as stated above)
10. Maternal morbidity rate (urban -v- rural)
11. Percent population in urban -v- rural areas
12. Predominant ethnic and religious groups, along with differences in ethnic group sizes.
13. Immigration/ emigration rates
14. Analysis of population growth (use Global Population Trends worksheet)
    

Economic data:

1. GNP per capita (in US $)
2. Total GNP/ GDP
3. Agricultural base (self sufficient -v- food importer)
4. Primary exports/ natural resources

Social/ Political data:

1. Education policy (compulsory? until what grade? age?)
2. Literacy rate (male and female if given)
3. Health care ( availability, physician.population ratio, subsidized, social -v- private system, nutritional status, etc.)
4. Status of women ( percent working, wages, voting, married -v- single, percent using contraception/ family planning, etc.)
5. Form of government/ very brief political history
6. Major religions
7. Country policy on population (support/ discourage family planning efforts in own country, clinics and availability of family planning/ prenatal care, cost of services, availability/legality of abortion, government funding for family planning programs, etc.)
8. Other key indicators that you believe are important

Some useful terms you may encounter:

Gross National Product. GNP is the total value of all final goods and services produced within a nation in a particular year, plus income earned by its citizens (including income of those located abroad), minus income of non-residents located in that country. Basically, GNP measures the value of goods and services that the country's citizens produced regardless of their location. GNP is one measure of the economic condition of a country, under the assumption that a higher GNP leads to a higher quality of living, all other things being equal. From http://www.investorwords.com/2186/GNP.html

Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The total market value of all final goods and services produced in a country in a given year, equal to total consumer , investment and government spending, plus the value of exports, minus the value of imports. . . It is important to differentiate Gross Domestic Product from Gross National Product (GNP). GDP includes only goods and services produced within the geographic boundaries of the country, regardless of the producer's nationality. GNP doesn't include goods and services produced by foreign producers, but does include goods and services produced by that country's firms operating in other countries. From http://www.investorwords.com/2240/Gross_Domestic_Product.html

International Monetary Fund (IMF). An organization set up in 1944 to lower trade barriers between countries and to stabilize currencies by monitoring the foreign exchange systems of member countries, and lending money to developing nations. From http://www.investorwords.com/2569/International_Monetary_Fund.html