A Step by Step Guide to writing Operative Clauses
Step One: Choose what operative phrase you want to use. Every great clause starts with that
perfect operative phrase that will frame how your clause is going to be viewed by the rest of the
room. When determining which phrase to use, consider the connotation of the words and how
they will be interpreted by other delegates. For example, a clause that begins will Establishes is
going to create something, whereas a clause that begins with Calls upon or Requests is going to
ask someone to do something. Depending on what the content of the clause is going to be and
how you want it to be perceived by the room, delegates have to be extremely careful with which
operative phrases they choose.
Step Two: Time to pick the main part of your clause (yes there should be multiple lines, no one
wants a boring vague clause.) The first line of your clause should answer the question: “What is
your resolution doing?” If you are starting a program, creating a standard, modifying an existing
document, condemning an action, or doing anything else be sure to say it in this line. When
determining the “What” of your clause be sure to be specific with what you are trying to do. No
one wants to read a vague clause that doesn’t present any tangible solutions.
Step Three: After you have completed the main clause, it is time to add sub-clauses, and in
some cases sub-sub-clauses. Sub-clauses should answer the questions: “Who, when, where, and
how is this solution going to work?” Sub-clauses detail how you plan to implement the action
described in the main clause. Sub-clauses are the meat of your clause and should take up the
predominance of your resolution paper. Use these lines to inform the reader of your resolution
who is going to be carrying out the action, where the action is going to be applied, and with what
means you are going to fund the action and ensure all conditions are met such as transportation,
security, and legality. Sub-clauses can also be used to provide further details about what the
resolution is going to do.
Step Four: Okay, so you have the operative phrase, main clause, sub-clauses, but how the heck
do you punctuate the clause as a whole? Firstly, each operative clause has to be numbered. the
operative phrase underlined. After that, things can get complicated. Between each whole
operative clause (including the main part of the clause and sub-clauses) you need to use a
semicolon, BUT if you have sub-clauses there is extra punctuation you have to remember.
Between the main part of the clause and the sub-clauses, you need to use a colon and between
the sub-clauses as well as sub-sub-clauses, use commas. Additionally, sub-clauses are lettered
and sub-sub-clauses are numbered with Roman numerals.

Resolution Paper Basics
Who: While any delegate in a committee could write a resolution. The author is called the
sponsor. There can be more than one sponsor on a paper.
What: A resolution is a document that contains all the issues that the committee wants to solve
and the proposed solutions to that issue. It’s called a resolution because that’s what the United
Nations calls the documents they produce.
When/Where: Your resolution will be written during your informal caucuses at the conference.
Why: The ultimate purpose of a committee session is to pass a resolution. All the speeches,
debate, negotiation, and teamwork is supposed to lead up to a resolution which contains all the
proposed solutions to the issue. The resolution(s) that the majority of the committee agrees upon
will be passed during voting bloc and the sponsors will be informally commended for building
consensus on good ideas.
How: The best way to write any paper is to break it into parts; this is also true for resolution
papers. A resolution paper can be broken into three main parts (1) the heading, (2) the preambulatory clauses, and (3) the operative clauses
Amendments
Approved draft resolutions are modified through amendments. An amendment is a written
statement that adds, deletes or changes an operative clause in a draft resolution. The
amendment process is used to strengthen consensus on a resolution by allowing delegates to
change the operative clauses (the pre-ambulatory clauses can not be modified). There are two
types of amendments:
1. A friendly amendment is a change to the draft resolution that all sponsors agree with.
After the amendment is signed by all of the draft resolution’s sponsors and approved by
the committee chair, it will be automatically incorporated into the resolution.
2. An unfriendly amendment is a change that some or all of the draft resolution’s
sponsors do not support and must be voted upon by the committee. This also refers to
delegates who did not write this resolution at all but see potential in it as long as several
changes are made to it. The sponsors of the amendment will need to obtain a required
number of signatories in order to introduce it. Prior to voting on the draft resolution, the
committee votes on all unfriendly amendments.
Writing an amendment is very simple. All you have to do is make an operative clause
that adds, deletes, or changes an operative clause in a draft resolution.
Examples include:
 Adds an operative clause that reads “14. Encourages all Latin American countries
to…”
 Deletes operative clause 9.
 Changes operative clause 1 to read “1. Calls upon the Red Cross to provide low-cost
medicines…”

10 Sources to Fund Your Solutions
Funding is important. Funding determines whether an idea in the resolution is realistic or not and
the scale of its impact. It’s oftentimes the question that many delegates have trouble answering,
and for some reason many Model UN delegates have resorted to a generic response of listing
“the World Bank, IMF, and (insert a bunch of NGOs)” as their sources for funding.
Here are the ten sources:
1. The United Nations: The UN has its annual budget that is set and approved by the
GA 5th Committee(Budgetary Committee). The UN is funded by assessed contributions
from all 193 member-states that contribute a percentage proportional to their country’s
gross domestic product (GDP). For example, the USA contributes about 22% (in 2012) of
the UN’s budget. Look up the UN’s website for its overall budget as well as budget for
specific programs.
2. General Assembly budgets: Each General Assembly committee has their own annual
budget. In addition, it can request additional discretionary budget for extra programs that
get proposed. This discretionary budget goes through an approval panel at the UN called
the ACABQ. You should try to look up the budget in your committee’s website to see
what it funds.
3. ECOSOC/Specialized budgets: Individual states rather than the UN as a whole fund
most ECOSOC and Specialized agencies at Model UN conferences (note: a lot of MUN
conferences lump ECOSOC-sounding committees into ECOSOC even though they aren’t
under ECOSOC in real life). States can choose what percentage they want to fund for
each agency depending on what they value, so they all have different budgets. For
example, many Western states love UNDP and UNICEF and contribute a lot of funding
to it. Conversely, the USA funds 0% of UNESCO (as of 2012) because the committee
recognizes Palestine as a state. You should try to look up the budget in your committee’s
website to see what it funds.
4. World Bank or International Monetary Fund (IMF): These are two separate
institutions that are not under the UN’s jurisdiction. They both provide funding in the
form of conditional loans – they will let countries borrow money for a set period of time
and have terms for the repayment (such as number of years) and amount of interest as
well as any additional conditions for results or reform (e.g. they can request a country
that takes the loan to start democratizing). Besides loans, they can also provide interestfree credit and grants.
The World Bank and IMF overlap on a lot of things, but the simplified main difference is
that the World Bank focuses on long-term development and poverty reduction projects
such as building roads or schools whereas the IMF focuses on short-term immediate
relief and financial stability efforts for both developed and developing countries such as
earthquake/tsunami relief or bailing out a country from bankruptcy. Technically, the
World Bank is two banks: the International Reconstruction and Development Bank
(IRDB) for middle-income and credit-worthy countries and the International
Development Association (IDA) for the poorest countries.
5. Regional Organizations: Similar to the UN, each regional organization has its own
annual budget and is funded by its members. Regional organizations are not part of the

UN so the specifics will be different; you should try to look up the budgets and programs
on their website.
6. Regional Banks: Some regions have a central bank that helps coordinate the monetary
policies for countries in those regions (they are not necessarily banks that provide money
for regional organizations or its members). They may or may not have the power to fund
smaller, specific programs as they tend to address larger, country- or regional-sized
issues, particularly in terms of financial stability. An example of a regional bank is the
European Central Bank (ECB), which has become involved in the Eurozone debt crisis.
7. Foundations: Rich people who decide to donate their money to better causes (these
rich people are called philanthropists) end up creating a non-profit foundation. Each
foundation has a different thematic emphasis depending on what they want to focus on.
Examples of foundations include the UN Foundation(funded by Ted Turner), the Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation, etc. There are a good number of foundations in the world —
look up their budgets and the types of programs they already fund.
8a. Multinational Corporations: Many multi-national corporations have a foundational
arm that donates money to non-profit programs and fulfills their “corporate social
responsibility” (CSR). For example, the American telecom company, AT&T, donates to
inner-city education programs so that it can have a better-educated workforce to recruit
from in the future. Corporations will usually mention their CSR efforts somewhere on
their website.
9a. Individual Countries: Countries can provide funding for many different reasons
(usually there’s a political or economic incentive behind it). Funding usually comes in the
form of aid. It could be free money, or it could be explicitly or implicitly tied to certain
conditions.
8b/9b. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI): Foreign direct investment means that the
funder provides the direct program rather than the money that’s supposed to be used for
that program. Multinational corporations or individual countries can provide FDI to other
countries. For example, a shoe manufacturer like Nike may be willing to build a factory
in a developing country and would fund and build the factory directly instead of paying a
developing country to build it. Or a country like China may want to transport oil from a
developing country and sell goods to that same country so it is willing to build roads
there directly for free or for low cost instead of funding that country to do so.
10. Microfinance: Funding can also be provided by individuals through microfinance or
more accurately microloans. Individuals from developed countries can loan a small
business owner in a developing country with some money to start up their business, and
then that business owner will eventually re-pay the loan back to the individual from the
rich country. That repaid money can then be used to loan someone else. An example of a
microfinance organization is Kiva.