Your first MUN opening speech: an example, a template and how to give it

Your opening speech on the GSL has six parts: a greeting, the problem, your position with one fact, one proposal, your partners and a yield.

An opening speech has one job: to tell the room what your country wants, so the right delegates find you afterwards. Name your country in the first ten seconds and reach your proposal within 40, because a point saved for the end runs out of time.

Do not open by explaining the topic, because everyone read the same background guide (some conferences call it a study guide). Say what only your country can say, and keep it diplomatic, not funny.

Ghana's one-minute speech on paying for climate adaptation, about 100 words, and a shorter one for a small island state.

You are Ghana in the General Assembly's Second Committee, and Topic A is who pays for adaptation, the work that protects people from climate harm. The speech says aloud what Ghana's position paper argues.

• One fact the room can picture. A coast losing almost 90 centimetres a year is easy to remember.
• One proposal, the paper's first. The second goes into the working paper when the caucus starts.
• Partners by name. The African Group hears an invitation, and everyone else knows where to find Ghana.

If your limit is shorter, keep one fact, one position and one proposal, as the Maldives does in about 40 seconds:

Write about 100 words from your position paper or country profile, then cut until one message is left.

If you wrote a position paper, take your position from its first paragraph and your proposal from its third. If not, your country profile holds every part, from its topic line to its allies.

Write fewer words if you speak slowly, because the timer decides, not the word count. Three rules keep the words useful:

• Speak for your country. Write “Ghana believes”, never “I think”.
• Criticize policies, never people. “Ghana cannot support a text that offers only new loans” is fair; a remark about another delegate is not.
• Make the proposal concrete. “Triple adaptation finance by 2035, as grants” is something a resolution can ask for; “address the issue” is not.

Time it, record it, say it to someone standing up, then move from the full text to a card.

A speech you have only read in your head is not ready. Practise it in five steps:

1. 1Time it. Read it aloud with a timer, and cut until it ends a few seconds early.
2. 2Record it once and listen back for a quiet voice, a fast pace or a last sentence that fades.
3. 3Say it to someone, standing up at the volume you will use in the room, and ask for one thing to change.
4. 4Move to a card. Turn the speech into one bullet point per part, and practise until you no longer need the full text.
5. 5Learn your first and last lines by heart, so you start by looking at the room and finish clearly.

Watch a few statements on UN Web TV to hear the pace of real diplomats, or the speech lesson in the Model UN Masterclass.

Short sentences, words you can say without stumbling and a slow pace beat difficult vocabulary.

Nine in ten people who apply on mymun live outside the US, the UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. You are rarely the only one speaking in a second language, or the only one making mistakes.

• Write short sentences, with one idea each. If a sentence needs a breath in the middle, split it.
• Choose words you can say, such as “money to adapt” for “adaptation finance”, and practise the names and numbers.
• Slow down on purpose. When you think you are speaking too slowly, you are probably at the right pace.
• If you forget a word, use a simpler one or skip the sentence. Nobody else has your text.

Have your card ready, breathe once before you start, and if your mind goes blank, your position line is enough.

Put your speech card on your desk before the session starts, and watch where the first speakers stand: at their seat or at the front. When the chair gives you the floor:

1. 1Breathe once before you speak. A short pause sounds calm, not lost.
2. 2Look up at the room at the end of each sentence, and speak to the back row.
3. 3When the chair warns you that time is nearly up, often with a tap of the gavel, skip to your proposal and close.
4. 4Finish a few seconds early. Ending early is normal.

Afterwards, note one thing to change and raise your placard again. If the chair keeps passing you over, send the chair a short note.

Repeat the question in a few words, answer in one or two sentences, and never invent a fact.

Whichever way the question comes, answer it in four steps:

1. 1Listen to the end, and note its key word.
2. 2Repeat it in a few words. It gives you time to think, and it shows the room what you are answering.
3. 3Answer in one or two sentences, about the policy, never the person.
4. 4If you do not know, say so. Never invent a figure: “Ghana will look into this and come back to it in its draft.”

In about 30 seconds, answer the last speakers, give one reason or fact, and propose one next step.

Later speeches are shorter and answer what others said. Prepare one line for each question in your background guide, and write a reply to each speaker while they talk.

To practise, ask a friend to read out questions on your topic. Think for 15 seconds, then answer for 30.