Help & submission guidelines

The SSG is a repository and membership platform for organizations. It seeks to identify and briefly describe international organizations, and nation-oriented organizations of possible international interest, that are focused on the two basic human goals of security and sustainability.

You can use the Guide to find other organizations working on issues within your area of interest. Each entry includes the organization’s contact details should you wish to get in touch with them.

There is a full-text search across all content, and a set of indices that organize organizations into specific categories. For details, see Navigating the Guide.

If you have an organization that fits the criteria and are able to access the required information, you can submit it. For more, see Submitting content.

To successfully claim a listing you need to provide proof that you are an authorised member of the organization. Registering with an organizational email address is usually enough. If you don’t have one, please provide other proof.

Anyone with an interest in global issues such as sustainability and human security is welcome to become a member. The process is most useful for organization representatives who want to maintain their listing, and for writers who want to contribute actively.

You can become a member by registering an account.

Members can claim listings and propose changes to their organization’s entry. Everyone, member or not, can submit new organizations or contribute in other ways (for example, writing guest posts).

Navigate to the page of the organization: the easiest way is to type its name into the page search. Once you’ve found it, click the blue Claim this listing button.

The SSG has thousands of entries, and we have tried to make navigation as efficient as possible. To browse, use one of the indices — they group entries by subject, organization type, geographic focus or SDG. To find a specific entry, use the search. Feel free to propose changes or new functionality.

Information is organized into four indices:

• Subject Index: categorizes organizations according to the field they work on.
• Organization Type Index: sorts organizations by their primary vehicle of change (what they work with rather than what they work on).
• Geographic Focus Index: sorts organizations by where they carry out their work, not where they are based. Useful for identifying organizations active in a particular geographic area.
• SDG Index (beta, for Notable Organizations): shows organizations by the SDGs they are consciously or implicitly working towards. Tagging was generated through natural-language processing with the help of the Global Goals Directory.

When you search for a term, the results appear on a new page. The result list can be refined with the following filters:

Content TypeThe SSG holds a range of content. You can choose to view curated content — organizations, reports, Notable Organizations, or Notable Individuals — or content created by the editorial team: Quicklooks and Reviews.

Organization TypeWhen viewing organizations or Notable Organizations, you can filter further by the type of organization.

Subject FilterFind entries related to more specific fields. Parent and child categories help organize and filter the abstracts.

Geographic FilterChoose the area an organization is targeting for change. Filter options include biomes, specific continents or sub-regions, the four scope tags (global, international, national, subnational), and “geo-focus unspecified/irrelevant”.

To submit your organization to the database, fill in this form. Please read the submission guidelines before you submit your organization for approval.

You fill in the submission form and an editor reviews it. If your organization meets the criteria, and all the required information has been provided, the organization is included in the Guide.

The submission guidelines on this page list everything you’ll need to include.

For now, you are welcome to contact the editors with suggestions. We are looking into ways for users to submit Reports directly to the Guide.

For now, you are welcome to contact the editors with suggestions. We are looking into ways for users to submit Notable Individuals directly to the Guide.

Editors look at three things:

• Is the organization connected to the overarching topics of security and sustainability? This includes frameworks like Human Security, the Sustainable Development Goals and Existential Risks and Threats. The Subject Index should give you a good idea.
• Does the organization have a stand-alone website? Because the Guide is online-first, this is a requirement. Sometimes projects that are part of a larger organization but have their own separate website are included; parent and child organizations can be linked in the database to clarify affiliation.
• Is the organization internationally relevant? We focus on organizations with an international outlook, or organizations whose model could be replicated internationally. This is not a hard criterion, but we cannot keep track of local organizations — especially those operating only in their local language.

• Maintain a level of neutrality.
• Avoid marketing speech — stick to the facts and avoid promotional phrasing.
• Focus on the big picture.
• Only highlight important activities, publications and programmes.
• Limit the entry to the most relevant issues that the organization is focused on.

Briefly describe the mission, goals and activities of the organization. Length should vary with the size of the organization. Keep these three questions in mind:

• What do they do?
• Why do they do it?
• How do they do it?

If a research centre or project is linked to a university or other organization, mention which in the description. Use subheadings and bulleted lists for programmes, projects, publications or events, and include links taking the user to the relevant information on the organization’s website. To highlight a specific paper or report, preface it with Highlight:.

Generally, we choose the type the organization describes itself with on its own website. You can select more than one type (for example: non-profit + research centre). If it isn’t clear, ask:

• What kind of organization are you describing?
• What is its legal basis and how is the organization operating?

Ask yourself which area the organization is targeting for change — not where its office is.

Global

Only applicable if the organization is a multilateral body (such as the UN), or is truly global — focusing on change across the world rather than a few countries. Otherwise its focus is international.

International

Dealing with more than one country. If the organization works across multiple regions (Asia, Africa, etc.), tag it as international and tag the regions where it is active.

National

Focus is on the internal issues of a country.

Subnational

The organization specifically says that it targets issues within local communities.

Unspecified

“Geofocus unspecified/irrelevant” — when the geographic focus is not mentioned or not applicable. For example, an organization researching a topic (such as water security) without applying it in the field.

Ask what the key issues are that the organization is working on. A few rules of thumb:

• Focus on the main aim, objective or focus of the organization. Don’t pick Climate Change (or any other subject) unless the organization clearly focuses on it.
• If the organization doesn’t have a clearly stated main focus, but all of its work links to (for example) sustainability — pick that. There is no need to choose every programme topic; they change, and there can be too many. Try to identify the overarching themes.
• If the organization says “global issues” and it fits the programmes, tag it as security and/or sustainability — depending on which type of global issues the organization focuses on.
• If an organization has multiple programmes, list them in the description under a “Programmes” subheading.
• If you aren’t sure of the topic, or it isn’t present in the Subject Index yet, tag it as uncertain so it can be reviewed or a new topic can be added.

Without clear numbers and definitions, the estimated count of staff can be tricky. Staff counts may or may not include administrative staff, associates, part-time or visiting fellows, interns, graduate students or volunteers. We try to focus on paid staff, with a separate counter for fellows, members and volunteers. Staff is a very rough measure of size that can never be precise without getting into huge and distracting detail — some estimates are better than none, but the above caveats should be kept in mind.