A National UN School Model "UNIDO - Simulation Game for Development" took place on 30th and 31st of March in Sofia. Students from 17 towns in the country - from 22 UN school clubs participated in the Model. Most of the participants were aged 16-18 years and while surprisingly very young, these UN "delegates"

also took part in the conference. Two eleven-year-old students did an excellent job performing the role of Italy. The "delegates" played the roles of the following countries: Angola, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Egypt, France, Greece, India, Italy, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Malaysia, Nigeria, the Republic of Korea, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the United Kingdom, the USA, The State of Utopia and the State of Power. Each delegation consisted of two students-delegates and the UN school club coordinator, who serves as a teacher in most cases. The total number of the participants was 70. The Model has taken place initially on a local level in each school where the best delegates were chosen to represent the school in the national conference. For the preparation of the participants the UNA published and distributed to the students "A Guide for Delegate Preparation. Model UNIDO 2002: Challenges and Opportunities in the World of Globalization." In this guide everything needed for the MUN preparation is collected and the UN Industrial Development Organisation is presented in detail. The opening ceremony took place at the meeting room of the Juridical Faculty of the Sofia University, "St. Kliment Ohridski," where the first plenary session was hold. The Resident Representative of UNHCR, Mrs. Luise Druke and the PR officer of the UNDP Branch in Bulgaria, Ms Svetla Velkova greeted the delegates. The participants received a special welcome message from the General Director of UNIDO - Mr. Carlos Magarinos. The conference continued with paper presentations of the delegations and later with a plenary debate. It is important that the UN school club coordinators were just observers of the conference, thus all adults stayed outside of the youth event just observing and giving short recommendations from time to time, however the "delegates" were so involved in the debate that hardly paid attention to outside advise. The atmosphere during the discussions was extremely tense. The interesting thing was that in each caucusing group there were delegates both from developing and developed countries. Singapore and Malaysia were very determined in their strategy to convince the USA that more investment and support for their industry development and education is needed. Canada and USA, however, were reluctant to agree in most situations throwing disappointment between the others in the group. The group of Nigeria, Angola, Saudi Arabia and France looked more calm and tolerant approaching mutual negotiation faster than the others. Suddenly the delegation of India asked to join their groups and was immediately accepted. The second day of the conference, after tense debate, all the delegates adopted a resolution. According the priorities of the young people the resolution targets mostly the issue of education. After evaluating the implementation of the project "Model UNIDO - Simulation Game for Development" UNA staff believe that the excersise managed to fulfil its main aims. These aims are to promote the activities of UNIDO among the youngest generations in Bulgaria and to stimulate them to learn more about international cooperation and the world of diplomacy). The project was financially supported by the program "MATRA - Small Projects" of the Netherlands Embassy in Bulgaria.