Peace & Security
In 2006, we organized 43 meetings of the NGO Working Group on the Security Council, promoting dialogue between NGO representatives and ambassadors on the Council. The Working Group also held several meetings with high-level UN officials. GPF gave advice, assistance and advocacy leadership on Council-related crises and worked closely with NGO partners, Council delegations, the UN Secretariat and others, seeking peaceful outcomes to violence in many lands. GPF followed closely the Council's work, as well as analyzing the issues on its agenda, including crises in Sudan, Congo, Haiti, the Ivory Coast, Lebanon, Iran, Israel-Palestine and Somalia. We posted a great deal of information on these topics to the GPF website and gave numerous media interviews about them. We paid special attention to natural resources in conflict – how diamonds, timber, gold, oil and other resources trigger and fund fierce civil wars and great power interventions, resulting in death, devastation, displacement, environmental degradation and social collapse. We took initiatives to promote more responsible and accountable global resource exploitation.
Iraq
To better inform the public about Iraq, GPF maintained one of the most comprehensive websites in the world on this topic. During the year, we worked to prepare a major report on the Iraq crisis from the vantage point of international law. Though the report was not completed in 2006, we posted a preliminary Executive Summary and began to circulate draft chapters to experts for comment. The year-long research effort greatly strengthened our advocacy and information work on Iraq. In particular, it informed two major NGO initiatives we led at the UN, to bring Iraq concerns to the Security Council. In March, we sent a letter to Security Council members, signed by GPF and 13 NGO partners, calling the Council's attention to violations of international law by the Multinational Force, especially the unlawful detention of thousands of Iraqis. In May we sent a second letter with a broader approach. Signed by GPF and 26 NGO partners, this letter called attention to seven major areas in which international law was being seriously violated by the MNF and it called on the Council to "substantially reconsider, revise or terminate" the mandate of the US-led force. These letters attracted considerable international attention and they helped to re-frame discussion and debate about Iraq in the the United States and worldwide.
Social & Economic Policy/Globalization
Our work on global social and economic policy addressed a wide range of issues, including hunger and poverty, inequality, the role of the World Bank and the IMF, international trade, development assistance, global taxes, and corporate accountability. We continued to pay special attention to the huge "global imbalances" in the financial sector, especially the record US balance of payment deficit of over $800 billion. We also pursued our work on financial market instability as well as offshore financial centers that contribute to instability, tax evasion and political corruption. We continued a special research project on emergency hunger aid, highlighting the large shortfalls in assistance to crises in Africa, Asia and Latin America. We welcomed the new UN relief fund that aims to provide more timely and even-handed emergency assistance. Our globalization work considered human-centered alternatives to the standard globalization model in the fields of politics, culture, law and the economy. In October we organized a well-attended event on global climate change. After a screening Al Gore's film, "An Inconvenient Truth," three panelists from Worldwatch Institute, the United Nations Secretariat and Environmental Defense discussed climate change and policies to address it.
UN Reform
We continued to provide analysis and information on UN reform on our website. With over 1000 documents, GPF's UN Reform site is one of the most comprehensive on the internet, covering change and reform of the UN and its agencies and programs as well as the role of NGOs and business in global governance. During the year, we covered the founding of the UN's Peacebuilding Commission as well as the creation of the Human Rights Council. We followed closely the debate about UN "management reform" and proposals for changing the authority of the Secretary General. We published a paper on management reform that criticized the rich countries for abusing their financial influence, while noting that poor countries also try to gain advantages of their own. Few give attention to the overall effectiveness of the UN during these reform battles.
United Nations Finance
We analyzed the UN's financial travails and continued to provide the world's most complete and accurate tables and charts on UN funding and budgets. We argued that UN finance is of central importance to the debate on UN reform, though often neglected because of a taboo on the subject imposed by the US. The UN has a pitifully small budget and it is constantly under-funded because member states fail to pay their dues on time and in full and they often place conditions on their voluntary contributions. GPF lobbies for the full and timely payment of dues to the UN as well as more overall financial resources. We also advocate for alternative financing for the UN, such as global taxes that would make the UN less dependent on a few powerful member states. Klaus Huefner, one of the world's foremost scholars on UN finance, joined GPF in January as Senior Research Fellow. A longtime faculty member at the Freie Universitaet Berlin, Huefner has assumed an active role with GPF as the leader of our research work on UN finance. In March, Huefner was a lead speaker at a meeting organized by GPF and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation on the United Nations' financial problems. The event was attended by scholars and diplomats from more than a dozen countries. The meeting looked at spending caps, the scale of assessments and longer-term trends
NGOs & Global Governance
We continued our active research and advocacy on the political role of the worldwide NGO movement. GPF presses for greater NGO access at the UN, pointing out that NGOs contribute much to the organization through information, ideas, advocacy and attentive monitoring. While the UN is more open to NGOs than it used to be, it still remains far too closed and restrictive. In February together with partner NGOs, GPF opened a new round of discussions with diplomats and Secretariat officials on the future of NGO participation. In March we submitted a paper to the President of the General Assembly, signed by a number of partners, asking for better access and participation in political deliberations. The President of the General Assembly appointed a special advisor on this question and later appointed two negotiators to take soundings among delegations. In November, the GA President convened a conference on NGO-UN relations and invited GPF Director Jim Paul to be one of the principal speakers.
Secretary General
We followed closely the selection of the Secretary General and advocated for a more open process, including a formal set of qualifications for candidates, and a timetable with systematic reporting and procedures for assessment of candidates. We joined partner NGOs for a press conference at UN headquarters, calling for an improved selection process. GPF was highly critical of the secrecy and the arcane selection procedure in the Security Council, dominated by the Council's five veto-wielding Permanent Members.
Corporate Accountability
GPF supports international initiatives to strengthen corporate accountability in the fields of human rights, labor, health and the environment. In 2006, GPF Europe took leadership in setting up the CORA-Network (www.cora-netz.de) of NGOs and trade unions seeking to build a robust accountability movement, including research, conferences and broad public advocacy. In the New York office, we continued our critical scrutiny of the UN's Global Compact program.
The United States in the Global System
The United States is today the most powerful country in the world - militarily, politically and economically. GPF seeks to better understand the role of the US in the international system and especially how US hegemony has become a counter model to multilateralism and a democratic world order. Factors of concern include the US military presence in over 100 countries, enormous US economic influence and pressure, and strong opposition from Washington to multilateral institutions like the UN. In the spring and summer we covered the Bush administration's threats to attack Iran. Earlier in the year we expanded our website coverage to study the challenges faced by the US, including the rise of competitors like China and India, and how the military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan – and the huge US balance of payments deficit -- have pushed Washington closer to "imperial overstretch." We are especially interested in the potential and the limits of the United Nations in such conditions.
Media
In 2006, we gave 192 interviews to media outlets all over the world including the BBC, CNN, National Public Radio, South Africa Broadcasting, Inter Press Service, Canadian Broadcasting, al-Jazeera, Financial Times and Danish Broadcasting. The topics of the interviews included Iraq, Iran, UN reform, UN finance, the UN Security Council, the selection of the next Secretary General, energy and oil, and global taxes.
Website/Newsletter
GPF hosts one of the world's largest NGO sites on the UN and global policy. During 2006, the site attracted a total of 54 million hits from 7.4 million visitors. We posted new documents and continued to refine the design of the site for greater user-friendliness. Our electronic newsletter distribution grew steadily, reaching subscribers in more than 130 countries.
Policy Papers & Essays
We published the Executive Summary of our forthcoming paper on "War and Occupation in Iraq." We also published a paper on NGO participation at the UN and a paper on management reform. Our European office published papers on ECOSOC reform, the problems of the "multi-stakeholder" model of global governance, and the problems poor countries face in mobilizing domestic resources to finance development.
Conferences, Lectures and Meeting Participation
In addition to more than forty meetings of the NGO Working Group on the Security Council, we organized many events in 2006. In March, GPF- New York organized a conference with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation bringing together NGOs, UN officials and diplomats to discuss the UN's finances. Later in the spring, GPF invited Brian Concannon, Director of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, to talk at a luncheon about the situation in Haiti and the role of the UN there. Another luncheon focused on the challenges of reconstruction and peace in the Tsunami-affected Aceh province of Indonesia with a presentation by Michael Renner of Worldwatch Institute. In October GPF organized a screening of Al Gore's film "An Inconvenient Truth" followed by a panel discussion on global climate change. Finally, in November GPF assisted the Hague Appeal for Peace in organizing a farewell reception for Secretary General Kofi Annan. GPF's European office organized a series of events during the year related to the Millennium Development Goals. A strategy workshop on the MDGs in May was attended by many German NGOs. In December, the European office organized a workshop together with Terre des Hommes on "the MDGs and their indicators," critically assessing these indeces and proposing alternative poverty and gender measurements. In October, GPF Europe and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation held an international workshop on "Multi-Stakeholder ‘Partnerships' – the Future of Multilateralism?" Finally, in November, GPF Europe and the German United Nations Association organized a conference on UN reform.
Internships
In 2006 we hosted three teams of interns in our New York office – a total of sixteen persons from eleven different countries. We gave them training in web posting, internet research and GPF program priorities. We wrote numerous recommendation letters and gave career support to current and former interns. We organized many intern luncheons, putting interns in touch with members of the UN community – NGOs, diplomats, Secretariat officials and other UN staff. In addition, two interns supported the work of our European office in Bonn.
Budget & Fundraising
In 2006, GPF's headquarters budget was $335,000. The New York office received more than half its annual funding from individuals. The remainder of its funding came from foundations, partner organizations, fees and other sources. GPF Europe had a budget in 2006 of €105,000. Most of its funding came from partner organizations and foundations. The remainder of its support came from members and individuals.
Global Policy Forum is supported primarily by contributions from generous individuals who join as members. GPF also receives grants from foundations and partner institutions. GPF is incorporated in the State of New York, registered as a charitable organization and recognized by the US Internal Revenue Service as a not-for-profit, tax-exempt organization under section 501(c)(3) of the revenue code.
