SMART Resolutions

Hey delegates! Let’s talk about resolutions, and how to make sure they’re SMART. That refers to more than just the adjective you all are familiar with; in this case, SMART is an acronym containing five guidelines for how to make sure your resolutions are on-point. Let’s go through them.

S stands for specific - you want to be clear what your resolution is addressing, as well as what actions you want to be taken as part of your resolution. Avoid vague statements like “problems with” or “issues in”, or “solutions to” - what problems? What issues? What solutions? Don’t leave room for someone to draw a random conclusion, let them know!

M stands for measurable - it’s important to be able to tell if your resolution met its goals! Make sure there’s a way to measure the results of your resolution - quantitative measurements like “10% increase” or “$1.8 million dollars allocated” are great, but qualitative measurements like survey results or acute events - “member of Uyghur community elected to office” - are good too. 

A stands for actionable - make sure you have a plan for how to make a solution happen. Think through all the moving parts - who will fund it? How will it be implemented? What’s the timeline? What’s the scope of your delegation’s responsibility? Make sure the steps are clear. 

R stands for realistic - this one can be easy to forget in Model UN! Even if this isn’t something you’ll *really* have to implement or fund, for the purposes of the resolution you’re writing, it’s important to at least try to act like it is. Don’t write resolutions with goals like “solve world hunger” or “remove all totalitarian/fascist sympathizers from the Russian government” - if it were that easy, someone would have done it by now! No need to crush your big dreams of addressing issues that you’re excited about, but make sure you’re keeping economic/political/etc limits in mind. 

T stands for time-bound - a strong resolution will have a clear time frame in which it’s being implemented, or a clear time-bound aspect. This is a great way to hold a delegation accountable to a resolution they pass - was the goal achieved within X amount of years? Were there Y number of grants distributed per year? Did Z number of people transition out of the poverty zone in the fiscal year? Time-boundedness creates an often-necessary urgency to make sure the resolution is implemented - don’t let your resolution go without it!