Security Council Report – 2006 Annual Report

Executive Summary
Security Council Report published twelve Monthly Forecasts, over sixty Update Reports, six Special Research Reports and four Profile Reports in 2006.  The website saw a significant increase in traffic and the subscriber base increased three-fold.   At the end of 2006 over six hundred hard-copy versions of the Monthly Forecast were distributed to diplomats, senior UN Secretariat staff, NGOs, academics and the media.  In addition, the Forecast was distributed electronically to a further 2,800 readers.  Moreover, seven thousand readers visited our website during December 2006.

Security Council Report is always looking to expand readership and in that vein a comprehensive outreach programme was initiated in 2006 designed to foster a greater understanding of Security Council Report’s work, dissemination of our outputs and to stimulate discussion and debate on the work of the Security Council itself.  Briefings were provided to a number of key stakeholders including Council members, UN missions, the UN Secretariat, UN agencies, foreign policy institutes, NGOs, academia, foundations and the media.

The International Advisory Group was successfully launched with a rich and engaging inaugural meeting held in November.
 
Organisational Overview
Security Council Report Inc. (SCR) is incorporated as a non-profit organisation in affiliation with Columbia University’s Center on International Organization with the support of the governments of Canada and Norway, the Rockefeller Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.  The purpose of Security Council Report is to provide accurate and objective information and analysis on the activities of the Security Council to a range of audiences including member states, particularly the ten elected members of the Council, but also the wider UN membership, the UN Secretariat itself, the NGO and academic communities, and the public. SCR will not take positions on the substance of resolutions before the Council.  But it will keep a searching and, perhaps at times, critical eye on the information underpinning Council decisions.

Funding
Security Council Report’s five donors have committed three years of funding to the organisation for 2005-2007.  The MacArthur Foundation and the Norwegian Government have granted $500,000 each per year.  The Rockefeller Foundation granted $340,000 in 2005 and $330,000 for the two following years.  The Hewlett Foundation granted $250,000 per year and the Canadian Government $200,000 per year.

Security Council Report, Inc.’s  2005 audit was completed by the independent auditors Eisner LLP in early 2006 and presented to the Board on 31 May 2006.  The Board approved the audit report.

Agreement with Columbia University
The Board decided that the relationship with Columbia University should be in the nature of an agreement for services rather than a grant relationship.  Accordingly, a contract between Security Council Report and Columbia University was finalised in 2006.

Management Developments
Security Council Report began to formalise its written internal management policies during 2006, its first full year as a staffed and operational organisation.  Annual performance review procedures have been developed which aim to ensure that staff members are meeting mutually agreed goals, achieving job satisfaction, developing necessary professional skills and to foster open lines of communication. Following advice from financial advisers Security Council Report has implemented financial controls which segregate financial duties, ensure regular general accounting reviews and proper cash management. A policies and procedures manual has been drafted for the staff.

Staff
SCR’s full time staff currently consists of Colin Keating, Executive Director; Joanna Weschler, Director of Research; Anne-Gaëlle Claude and Fernanda Rafaela Fernandes, research analysts; and Amanda Roberts, Programme Coordinator. The creation of a full-time administrative assistant position was also approved in 2006.  In addition, SCR has as consultants: Shamala Kandiah, Research Consultant; and, part-time, Curtis Ward, Senior Research Consultant and Brian Lockstone, Communications Consultant. In late 2006, SCR began the process to recruit at least one additional research staff member through Columbia University Human Resources.

Staff members are geographically diverse and represent the following nationalities: Brazil, France, Jamaica, New Zealand, Poland, Singapore and the USA. Staff members speak the following languages in addition to English: Arabic, French, Indonesian, Malay, Portuguese, Polish and Spanish.

The staff is supplemented by one to two research interns.  During 2006 interns were recruited from Columbia University’s Law School, Journalism School and School of International and Public Affairs; the Ralph Bunche Institute at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York; and Long Island University.

Board
The Board provides the governance structure for Security Council Report and is comprised of representatives from each of the five principal donors and Columbia University. The President of the MacArthur Foundation, Jonathan Fanton chairs the Board. 

Other Board members include:

Upon the appointment of John McNee as Allan Rock’s successor as Ambassador of Canada to the UN, Allan Rock resigned his seat on the Board.  On 31 May the Board elected John McNee to the Board, effective 1 July.  The Board paid a special tribute to Allan Rock for his contribution to developing and establishing Security Council Report.  His determination, guidance and assistance in bringing the vision of Security Council Report to a working reality were greatly appreciated by the Board.  On 28 November, the Board re-elected Jonathan Fanton as Chair and John McNee as Treasurer and Secretary at the annual meeting.

During 2006 the Board held four meetings as follows: 24 February, 31 May, 6 September and 28 November. The Board of Directors meets at Security Council Report’s offices in New York City.  (Professor Ed Luck of Columbia University and Professor Thomas Weiss of the CUNY Graduate Center provide regular advisory services to the Board.)

Products

Monthly Forecast
The Forecast is SCR’s principal product and 2006 was the first full year of publication.  Published on a monthly basis, the Forecast is comprised of briefs on issues likely to be on the Council’s agenda for the coming month.  A premium is placed on “comprehensive brevity” by offering thorough analysis of Security Council dynamics and options while keeping the average length of each brief to an easily digestible 1000 to 2000 words.  During the course of 2006 SCR developed four regular features for the Forecast:

Security Council Report published twelve Forecasts in 2006 and included items on almost all of the active issues facing the Security Council. 

Update Reports
Update Reports are published electronically throughout the month to complement the Monthly Forecast, capturing developing or changing events that affect the Council’s work.  At times, these are issued to alert the wider UN membership to upcoming thematic debates in the Security Council and to help non-Council members prepare for participation in such debates. Below is a complete list of the over sixty Updates published in 2006.

Special Research Reports
Special Research Reports are published on an ad-hoc basis to provide an in-depth analysis of Council decisions, processes or practice.  They are published electronically and in hard copy. SCR published six such reports in 2006.

Profile Reports
Profiles are in-depth background pieces on country-specific situations or thematic issues designed to be a web-based supplement to SCR publications with a significantly longer shelf-life than Forecasts or Updates. They aim to provide a comprehensive analysis, a complete list of relevant UN documents, and detailed chronology on particular issues. To date, SCR has published four Profiles.

Three more are under preparation (Burundi, Haiti and Zimbabwe). More will continue to be developed and written as resources permit.

Website
All SCR publications are published electronically and archived on the website, www.securitycouncilreport.org. The site’s homepage has averaged approximately 6,250 hits per month, representing a 72 percent increase from 2005.  2,800 readers subscribe to our email alerts, a three-fold increase from 2005. 

In 2006 SCR began to make progress on the long-term endeavor of filling out the site’s content by developing the following web pages:

Launch of International Advisory Group
The Board of SCR appointed a group of fourteen eminent persons with in-depth, high-level knowledge of UN and Council issues to form an International Advisory Group. The Group held its inaugural meeting on 27 November 2006.  The Group, representing a range of issue-area expertise in addition to striking a regional and gender balance, will meet annually to provide SCR with a structured high-level review of its publications and advice on its programmatic activities. 

Membership
The Group is chaired by Ambassador Wegger Strømmen, Permanent Representative of Norway to the UN in Geneva.  Other members include:

Summary of the Inaugural Meeting
The first phase of the Group’s meeting was with Ambassadors Ellen Løj of Denmark and Augustine Mahiga of Tanzania, elected Council members whose terms expired at the end of 2006.  In the second phase of the meeting the Group heard from the UN and NGO community. Nicola Reindorp of Oxfam presented an NGO perspective and UN Assistant Secretary-General Bob Orr offered a Secretariat perspective.  The third phase of the meeting was the Group’s deliberations.

Outreach Activities

UN Missions
Security Council Report has successfully continued its regular practice of briefing each of the incoming Council presidents and has also provided assistance to Council members.  In addition, SCR has provided assistance to incoming Council members for the 2007-2008 term; both directly with the missions and in the context of the annual workshop for incoming Council members in Tarrytown, New York.

Security Council Report has aided UN Missions with information on issues ranging from Council working methods, procedures for election to Council membership, process of appointing a Secretary-General and the establishment of the Peacebuilding Commission to thematic issues such as security sector reform and children and armed conflict.

SCR has made similar outreach efforts toward the member states at large. Ambassador Colin Keating and members of the research staff have met with the Forum of Small States (hosted by Singapore), attended several Arria formula meetings, and have met with many members of the General Assembly.

UN Secretariat
In 2006 Security Council Report hosted working luncheons with the Department of Political Affairs-Security Council Affairs Division and the Department of Public Information. 

Ambassador Keating spent significant time in 2006 continuing to engage the UN Secretariat in discussions to build critical inter-institutional relationships.  He gave a briefing on the Peacebuilding Commission at a Department of Public Information NGO briefing.  He spoke at an event dedicated to the Rwandan genocide hosted by the Africa Section of the Department of Public Information.  He briefed the Monitoring, Evaluation and Consulting Division of the UN Office of Internal Oversight Service.  He met with senior staff members of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, Department of Political Affairs, the Office of Legal Affairs and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. 

In 2006, Ambassador Keating also traveled to Geneva to initiate an outreach effort introducing SCR to the UN Office in Geneva.  He met with the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the High Commissioner for Refugees, as well as senior staff at the Department of Disarmament Affairs, OCHA, and the World Health Organisation.  He also met with the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Organisation for Migration.

NGOs
Relationships with NGOs have continued to be strengthened in 2006. SCR began hosting regular informal meetings with leading NGO advocates who follow Security Council affairs closely. In addition, Security Council Report has maintained its active participation in the NGO Working Group on the Security Council, organised by the Global Policy Forum.  SCR has also participated in the NGO Working Group on the Secretary-General Appointment and briefed the Quakers UN Office International Governing Board. 

Foreign Policy Institutes
Security Council Report has forged institutional linkages with a number of key foreign policy institutes based out of several countries in an effort to broaden the organisation’s reach. 

SCR’s senior research staff met with the UN Association of the USA and the UN Association of the United Kingdom.  There were numerous meetings with the German foundation, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, on the Peacebuilding Commission, Human Rights Council, priorities for the next Secretary-General and a briefing for its Fall Academy.  There was a meeting with the Spanish foundation FRIDE (Foundation for Foreign Relations and International Dialogue). Ambassador Keating met with the Lowry Institute of Australia and the Geneva Centre for Democratic Control of Armed Forces. 

There has been regular participation in Council on Foreign Relations and International Peace Academy meetings in New York.  Ambassador Keating attended the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations conference on the responsibility to protect and the Stanley Foundation’s conference on nuclear weapons, energy and non-proliferation.  He also has attended meetings of the Center on Global Counter-Terrorism based in Washington DC.

Academia
Security Council Report research staff participated in New York University’s Center on International Cooperation’s roundtable on how the Council handled the situations in Iraq and North Korea.  SCR also took part in New York University’s Institute for International Law and Justice’s conference on the role of the Secretary-General.  Ambassador Keating delivered lectures to seminars involving Columbia University, Seton Hall, Cambridge University, Occidental College and Sciences Po.  The Director of Research delivered two lectures at Columbia University’s Law School and another at Drew University.

Foundations
Ambassador Keating briefed the MacArthur Foundation’s Board on UN Reform and the German Marshall Fund on the Security Council.

Media
Security Council Report’s senior research staff has been interviewed by several media outlets including CNN, ARD German TV, Swiss Radio, Foreign Policy Magazine, Reuters, Associated Press, South Africa’s Business Day, Basque TV, and C-Span.  Security Council Report’s publications have been cited by major news outlets including Reuters, The Washington Post, the Financial Times, IRIN, Middle East Report, and ReliefWeb.  SCR has provided briefings to the UN Correspondents Association’s Dag Hammarskjöld Scholars in Journalism and to visiting Geneva-based journalists.

Plans for 2007
In 2007, Security Council Report will develop a new publication which will be a regular “cross-cutting issues” report. It will track how in practice the Council is integrating into its day-to-day work and country-specific resolutions the decisions taken at the thematic level. Security Council Report will also develop a new annual document which will review the overall activity in the Council during the past year.  Both of these initiatives will be in the development phase in 2007.

Financial Report
The operating budget for Security Council Report in 2006 was US$1.78 million. Expenditure was US$1,606,498.  US$1,059,892 was expended through Columbia University ($781,385 on personnel costs and $278,507 on operating costs).  Direct costs paid by Security Council Report Inc. were $546,606. 

An audited financial report for the entire budget carried out by the independent auditors of Eisner LLP will follow in early 2007.