This assignment takes the form of a short presentation of the topic of the most important challenge facing the political operation of an international organisation. You task is to choose one such organisation (e.g. the UN, World Bank, or IMF) and present the key challenges it faces. You cannot choose a regional organisation. If you are interested in the UN, you might choose to focus on one of its organs (such as the Security Council), or a specific program (e.g. the UNDP) or agency (e.g. the WHO). 

Content

Your presentation cannot be descriptive. You need to critically engage with the key challenges and their impact on the effectiveness of your IO. You also need to propose some recommendations on how to respond to those challenges. For example, if you choose to present the UN Security Council, for the first couple minutes you can briefly introduce the Council (its membership and decision-making structure) and then focus on the key challenges. These challenges may include, for example, the ineffectiveness of the Council in responding to contemporary crises, or attempts to reform the Council’s voting structure. In your concluding remarks, you need to explain how these challenges affect the UN overall and how they can be addressed.  Keep the descriptive part as short as you can.

Format of your presentation

You are required to record (video or audio) an eight (8)-minute presentation and submit it online for assessment.

You must use Powerpoint slides during your presentation and your last slide must include a list of the sources you used during your presentation (but you don’t need to present these sources verbally).

I strongly recommend you to practice it before recording the video and write your script before recording it (you need to write and submit the script as part of the assessment). Eight minutes is not long one, and without a script you may not present a structured analysis. Do not try to cover everything, only a few key points. Critical analysis is the key!

Presentations are strictly limited to eight minutes. You will lose marks if you exceed that time limit.