The Ananda College Model United Conference was held on the 5th and 6th of November 2022 at the Ananda College premises. It is an entirely student run conference which featured around 400 delegates from countless schools and colleges in Colombo debate in 5 committees: GA1, UNHRC, ECOSOC, WHA and SC. 

   I debated in the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) representing the Portuguese Republic. ECOSOC was quite the obvious choice for me, with my interests in economics aided by the exceptional conference topic covering neo-colonialism with a focus on the Belt and Road Initiative. It also helped greatly that Portugal had a neutral stance on the BRI, allowing me to set my own stance depending on what was being discussed in committee.

   As per usual for economic committees, the topics discussed are very technical and requires a great deal of foundational knowledge. Luckily for me with my background of economics and a history of debating in economic councils, my foundational knowledge was up to standard – which left me to focus heavily on niche yet striking areas of interest under the BRI and neo-colonialism. Additionally, I placed a heavy emphasis on researching related country’s foreign policies which gave me content to be aggressive in committee.

   Both days of conference went extremely well. By the end of the first day I had already firmly established myself for one of the top awards. There were a few decent delegates, but none of them were aggressive and refrained from targeting me (it did help though that I was very intimidating). This left me alone to control the flow of the debate and target potential competition whenever possible. The second day was mainly dedicated to maintaining my lead by keeping consistent during resolution debates.