Security Council Report – 2010 Annual Report

Security Council Report (SCR) is a corporation established under US law for non-profit purposes. It is affiliated with Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. There are currently four principal donors:

Mission
Security Council Report (SCR) is an independent not-for-profit organisation. It was founded on the belief that consistent, balanced, high-quality information about the activities of the United Nations Security Council and its subordinate bodies is essential to the effective performance of the Council and that this information should also be available to a wider group of stakeholders and the general public.

To that end, SCR publishes an objective and analytical monthly report on the Council’s current and prospective programme of work. This is supplemented by longer published reports on key thematic and structural issues confronting the Council and a regular feed for UN members of insights on developments in the Council and breaking news.

Upon request, SCR works with incoming Council members on a one to one basis to help build capacity. More widely SCR works with Council members and a range of stakeholders to deepen the analysis of issues before the Council. SCR is neutral and does not take positions on the substance of issues before the Council.

Board of Directors
The Board provides the governance structure for SCR with representatives from the four principal donors and Columbia University.

The current Board members are:

  • Paul Brest of the Hewlett Foundation (Chair);
  • Dean John Coatsworth of Columbia University;
  • Barry Lowenkron, Vice President at the MacArthur Foundation;
  • Ambassador John McNee, Permanent Representative of Canada to the UN;
  • Ambassador Morten Wetland, Permanent Representative of Norway to the UN.

Ed Luck of the International Peace Institute and Tom Weiss of the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies provide advisory services to the Board.

Finance and Budget
The 2010 SCR budget was $2.54 million. The final expenditure was $2.75 million, slightly higher than budgeted due to a shift to new office accommodations. (In December 2010, SCR moved into a larger office space in order to accommodate additional staff and also secure a conference room that could meet the needs of SCR’s expanded outreach activities.)

Donors in 2010 included the MacArthur Foundation ($666,666); the Norwegian government ($689,000); the Hewlett Foundation ($333,333); the Rockefeller Foundation ($100,000); the Canadian government ($200,000); the German government ($182,500), the Swiss government ($50,000), the Netherlands government ($30,000), the Liechtenstein government ($18,250) and the Singapore government ($10,000).

Staff
The current SCR staff includes: Executive Director Colin Keating; Deputy Director and Director of Research Joanna Weschler; Coordinating Editor and Research Analyst Amanda Roberts; Senior Research Analyst Shamala Kandiah, Research Analysts Robert Afriyie, Clare Gatehouse, Troy Prince, Astrid Forberg Ryan and Eran Sthoeger; Research Assistants Dahlia Morched and Amali Tower, Publications Coordinator Robbin VanNewkirk; and Administrative Assistant Maritza Tenerelli. In addition, one research consultant and one part-time communications consultant are engaged. The staff is usually supplemented by one to two research interns.

Staff members are geographically diverse and represent the following nationalities: Australia, Egypt, Ghana, Israel, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Singapore, South Africa and the USA.

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

Activities in 2010

Outreach: SCR continued to expand its extensive outreach activities, mainly through briefings and discussions, targeting a number of key stakeholders, including Council members, UN missions, the UN Secretariat, foreign policy institutes, NGOs, academic institutions and the media.

As part of these activities, SCR offered monthly briefings on the issues before the Security Council to three key constituents: non-governmental organizations (NGOs), UN agencies and member states which have shown a special interest in SCR’s work. These briefings offer a forum for the participants for open and frank, “off-the record” discussions about key issues on the Council’s agenda and encourage critical analysis of its performance.

NGO Outreach: SCR’s NGO briefings are regularly attended by Amnesty International, CARE, Global Policy Forum, Human Rights Watch, International Crisis Group, International Rescue Committee, Oxfam International, Refugees International, Women’s Refugee Commission and World Vision.

UN Agency Outreach: Briefings for UN agencies are attended by the New York representatives from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. In addition, New York representatives from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the World Bank, UNDP and the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue are also invited to attend.

Member State Outreach: SCR expanded its monthly briefings for a select group of member states—“Friends of SCR”—launched in 2009. Regular participants include diplomats from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Singapore and Switzerland. Indonesia has also participated from time to time. In 2011, it is expected that the five elected members that left the Council at the end of 2010—Austria, Japan, Mexico, Turkey and Uganda—will join the briefings.

A Possible New Project: Capacity Building for Elected members of the Security Council
SCR has continued to develop its services to the elected ten members by providing briefings and documentation and encouraging an informal exchange of information and ideas through a series of working lunches. Additional assistance has so far, however, been provided on an ad-hoc, by request basis. SCR is currently developing a new program that would enable it to offer a much more professional capacity building service for incoming elected members, specifically aimed at developing countries preparing to serve on the Security Council.

The immediate target audience would be developing countries that are elected to serve on the Council for the 2012-2013 term and will be preparing for their tenure in late fall 2011. The project is still in a preliminary planning phase. Its feasibility will depend on available staff and ongoing discussions with donors.

Assessment of SCR
The Board of SCR decided in late 2010 that the organization should undertake a structured assessment seeking feedback from its core audiences. The primary purpose of this assessment is to survey whether the publications prepared by SCR are found to be useful by its audiences and to uncover any suggestions or recommendations they may have for improvement. It is expected that the assessment will be finalized by the middle of the year and the conclusions will be shared with the Advisory Group.

Overview of SCR Publications:
Since its establishment in October 2005 through year’s end 2010, SCR has published:

  • 63 Monthly Forecasts
  • 229 Update Reports
  • 20 Special Research Reports
  • 9 Cross-Cutting Reports

Over 1,800 hard-copies of each Monthly Forecast, Special Research Reports, and Cross-Cutting Reports are distributed to diplomats, senior UN Secretariat staff, NGOs, academics and the media. Distribution is supplemented by e-mail alerts to our approximately 5,000 subscribers.

Monthly Forecast
The Forecast is SCR’s principal product and 2010 was the fifth 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.

In 2009 SCR began including in each country-specific brief a synopsis of related developments from the Geneva-based Human Rights Council. This was well received by core audiences and has now become established practice. SCR relies on a Geneva based consultant to provide accurate and up-to-date information on human rights related developments.

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. SCR published 33 such reports in 2010.

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. Three such reports were published in 2010:

Cross-Cutting Reports
Cross-Cutting Reports track the actual performance of the Council in following through on its thematic decisions. These are also published in hard-copy and on the SCR website. Three such reports were published in 2010 on:

Planning in 2010
In accordance with the 2010 recommendations of the International Advisory Group and the decisions of SCR’s Board, a particular focus in the coming year will be development of new services to member states to supplement SCR’s current focus on publications.

Research and Publications
SCR will continue its current product line of publications. The monthly Forecast remains SCR’s principal product. It is supplemented by online Update Reports throughout the month on emerging issues or developing situations and longer published reports on key thematic and structural issues confronting the Council—Special Research Reports and Cross-Cutting Reports.

In addition to the regular monthly Forecasts and as-needed Update Reports, SCR is planning to publish:

  • Special Research Reports on Emerging Threats in West Africa; Relations between the UN Security Council and the AU Peace and Security Council and their respective roles; Security Council Elections; and Appointment of the Secretary-General.
  • Cross-Cutting Reports on Children and Armed Conflict; Women, Peace and Security; and Protection of Civilians as well as the first of a new series on Rule of Law and Justice.

Launch of New Website
SCR is continuously working to increase its audience. As part of these efforts, a new and more user-friendly website is currently scheduled to be launched in summer 2011. It will be easier to navigate and search and will include more fully developed webpages devoted to the Council’s procedures and agenda, membership and elections, subsidiary bodies, and peacekeeping. Development of such content will bring SCR closer to becoming the “one stop shop” for information on the Security Council. The new website will also significantly improve SCR’s ability to track who its readers are and find out whether it is reaching its target audience.

Launch of “What’s in Blue” – a new Real Time Information Tool
SCR has made progress in 2010 developing an interactive web-based, blog-style communication and technology tool for UN delegations in New York.  This new project, with the now official title “What’s in Blue” (it refers to a Council draft resolution printed in blue, which means that it can be voted on within 24 hours). “What’s in Blue” will offer two distinct products:

  • Firstly, it will aggregate open source news stories on each of a list of issues on the Security Council’s agenda.
  • Secondly, it will supplement the open source information with short postings of insider information on each of the listed issues, which will be prepared several times a week by SCR to provide updates on expected Council outcomes, negotiations, emerging issues etc.