Security Council Report – 2008 Annual Report

Overview
Security Council Report (SCR) is a corporation established under US law for non-profit purposes. It is also affiliated with Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. It is financially supported by six principal donors: 

Funding was also received in 2008 from the Governments of Liechtenstein and Switzerland.

The purpose of the establishment of SCR in 2005 was to provide timely, accurate, objective information and analysis on the activities of the Security Council. SCR is not an advocacy organisation. It does not adopt positions or take stands.

SCR was incorporated by the initial donors on 17 November 2004 and it began operations in 2005. By-laws were passed and a Form 1023 application for recognition of charitable status was filed with the IRS in March 2005 and an affiliation agreement was negotiated with Columbia University.

Ambassador Colin Keating, a former Permanent Representative of New Zealand to the UN who represented New Zealand on the Security Council in 1993-94, was appointed founding Executive Director in February 2005.

In October 2005 the first SCR Monthly Forecast Report was published and the SCR website became operational.

Management
 Board of Directors

A Board provides the governance structure for Security Council Report with representatives from each of the five principal donors and Columbia University.

There were two changes in Board membership in 2008. Lisa Anderson of Columbia University and Ambassador Johan Løvald of Norway both resigned from the Board in June 2008 as they moved to different professional appointments. At the end of 2008 Board members were:

Ed Luck and Tom Weiss provide advisory services to the Board.

International Advisory Group

In 2006 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 provides SCR with a structured high-level review of its publications and advice on its programmatic activities.

Two new members joined the Group in late 2008: Jean-Marie Guéhenno, the former Under Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations of the United Nations; and Johan Løvald,Ambassador and Special Envoy for Financing for Development, Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and former Permanent Representative of Norway to the United Nations in New York. (See Annex 1 for a membership list.)

The Group held its third meeting on 14 October 2008. The members of the Group expressed a high degree of satisfaction with the roll-out of SCR’s Cross-Cutting Reports in 2008 and with SCR’s sharper analysis in its published products and stronger media profile. The Group recommended that SCR continue to focus on publishing more in-depth research studies within its current product line which includes the Special Research Reports and Cross-Cutting Reports and also to expand its non-publication outreach to a range of UN member states.

Finance and Budget
Founding donors recommitted funding for the second phase of three years (2008-10). The MacArthur and Hewlett Foundations and the Norwegian government increased the levels of their contributions.

The 2008 SCR budget was $2.53 million. Actual expenditure was $2.17 million.

In 2008, the MacArthur Foundation granted $750,000; the Norwegian government granted $667,000; the Hewlett Foundation granted $333,333; the Rockefeller Foundation granted $250,000; the Canadian government $300,000; the Swiss government $40,000 and the Liechtenstein government $9,000.

An audited financial report for 2008 carried out by the independent auditors Eisner LLP is currently in preparation.

Looking forward, the approval and initial implementation of a package of new products in 2008, in response to the International Advisory Group’s recommendations in 2006 and 2007, will entail increased budgets during the second phase. Additional staff, space and publication costs over the 2008-10 period are expected.

Staff
 In 2008 SCR’s staff consisted of: Colin Keating, Executive Director; Joanna Weschler, Director of Research; Robert Afriyie, Anne-Gaëlle Claude, Fernanda Rafaela Fernandes and Shamala Kandiah, Research Analysts; Amanda Roberts, Programme Coordinator; and Robbin VanNewkirk, Administrative Assistant. In addition two full-time research consultants and a full-time programme consultant were engaged along with a part-time communications consultant. The staff is usually supplemented by one to two student research interns.

Staff members are geographically diverse and in 2008 represented the following nationalities: Australia, Brazil, France, Ghana, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Singapore and the USA.

Staff members speak the following languages in addition to English: Arabic, French, Ga, Indonesian, Malay, Norwegian, Portuguese, Polish, Spanish and Twi.

Outputs
Since commencement in October 2005 through year’s end 2008, Security Council Report has published:

Monthly Forecast

The Forecast is SCR’s principal product and 2008 was the third full year of publication. The Forecast is published monthly in hard-copy and on the SCR website and is comprised of briefs on the issues on the Council’s agenda for the coming month.

Security Council Report published twelve Forecasts in 2008. Annex 2 lists the major active issues on the Security Council agenda which were addressed in each of these reports.

Update Reports

Update Reports are published electronically throughout the month to complement the Monthly Forecast. They are designed to alert readers to emerging issues or developing situations. Below is a complete list of the 42 Updates published in 2008.

Special Research Reports

Special Research Reports are published in hard-copy and on the SCR website to provide an in-depth analysis of particularly significant Council decisions, processes or practice. Five such reports were published in 2008:

Cross-Cutting Reports

Cross-Cutting Reports are a new line of products. These are designed to track the actual performance of the Council (and its subsidiary bodies) in following through on its thematic decisions. These are also published in hard-copy and on the SCR website. Two such reports were published in 2008:

The Special Research Reports and Cross-Cutting Reports published in 2008 are products resulting from recommendations made by the International Advisory Group in 2006 and 2007 encouraging SCR to undertake more ambitious analysis and contribute to the Council’s transparency by holding the Council accountable to its own decisions.

Over 1,800 hard-copies of the Monthly Forecast and Special Research and Cross-Cutting Reports are distributed to diplomats, senior UN Secretariat staff, NGOs, academics and the media. Distribution is supplemented by email alerts to our 4,000 subscribers.

The website continues to see a significant increase in traffic, averaging 50,000 page views per month.

Outreach
Our outreach efforts have resulted in excellent name recognition within the New York UN community.In New York, SCR continues to work with a number of key stakeholders, mainly through briefings and addresses for groups, individuals, Council members, UN missions, the UN Secretariat, foreign policy institutes, NGOs, academic institutions and the media.

During the past year, we have focused a significant portion of our outreach activity on the elected Council members and targets beyond New York.

Outreach to Incoming Members of the Security Council

Working lunches were held at SCR offices with the mission staff of new Security Council members (Burkina Faso, Costa Rica, Croatia, Libya, and Vietnam). Meetings were also held with member states aspiring to Council membership (Austria, Iceland, Japan, Mexico, Poland and Turkey).

Outreach to Capitals

The importance of getting SCR better known in capitals was emphasised in the 2007 International Advisory Group meeting. The Executive Director and the Director of Research promoted SCR in several international centers, such as Canberra, Istanbul, Mexico City, Reykjavik, Santiago, Geneva and Warsaw.

Distinguished Visitors

In addition to several delegations from member state capitals, the heads-of-state of Slovenia and New Zealand visited SCR and were briefed on Security Council issues in SCR’s New York office.

Presidency of the Security Council

The Executive Director and the Director of Research have a monthly meeting with the incoming president of the Council. The Director of Research also meets monthly with the political coordinator of the incoming presidency.

UN Missions

UN Secretariat

UN Agencies

NGOs

International Organisations

Foreign Policy Institutes

Conferences

 

Media

ANNEX 1: International Advisory Group Membership

Ambassador Wegger Strømmen (Chair)
Ambassador of Norway to the United States and former Permanent Representative of Norway to the UN in New York and Geneva

Dr. Adekeye Adebajo
Executive Director, Centre for Conflict Resolution, University of Cape Town

Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al-Hussein
Ambassador of Jordan to the United States and former Permanent Representative of Jordan to the UN (2000-2007)

Dr. Emilio J. Cárdenas
Senior Adviser, Snowcroft Group and former Permanent Representative of Argentina to the UN (1992-1997)

Professor Jorge Castañeda
Global Distinguished Professor of Politics and Latin American Studies at New York University and former Foreign Minister of Mexico (2000-2003)

Louise Fréchette
Senior Fellow of the Centre for International Governance Innovation and former Deputy Secretary-General of the UN

Jean-Marie Guéhenno
Former Under Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, UN

Elisabeth Lindenmayer
Interim Director of UN Studies, School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University and former Deputy Chef de Cabinet of the Secretary-General of the UN

Ambassador Johan L. Løvald
Former Permanent Representative of Norway to the UN (2003-2008)

Dean Kishore Mahbubani
Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore and former Permanent Representative of Singapore to the UN

Ram Manikkalingam
Senior Adviser to the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue in Geneva and former Senior Adviser to the President of Sri Lanka

Lt. Gen. Satish Nambiar
FormerDirector, The United Service Institution of India; former Deputy Chief of Staff of the Indian Army and the former Force Commander of the UN Protection Force in the former Yugoslavia

Ambassador Thomas Pickering
Former Senior Vice President of International Relations of the Boeing Company and former Permanent Representative of the US to the UN (1989-1992)

Ambassador Allan Rock
President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ottowa,Special Adviser on Sri Lanka to the UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, former Permanent Representative of Canada to the United Nations (2004-2006)

Yvette Stevens
Former UN Assistant Emergency Relief Coordinator and Director of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Geneva

DISTINGUISHED ASSOCIATED ADVISER
H.E. Danilo Türk, President of the Republic of Slovenia and former member of the International Advisory Group, was elected to office in November 2007 and continues his association with Security Council Report in an informal capacity.

ANNEX 2: Issues Covered in the 2008 Monthly Forecasts