As described by the Statutes of the Foundation:

Operational organization and processes are detailed in the Internal Administrative Regulations and Rules of Procedure. These give an overview of how SEI is organized and governed, and where and how decisions are made in the organization at different levels and functions. They detail the division of roles and responsibilities between the Board, the Executive Director, SEI centres and other governance structures in SEI; and processes for internal planning, steering and reporting.

The Board and Executive Director control funding, administrative and programme work undertaken by all foundation centres. For other centres, the relationship is laid down in their respective Statutes and in bilateral centre agreements. The delegation of decision-making in the SEI Foundation is regulated in the Rules of Authority (Delegationsordning). Decisions can also be delegated by the Executive Director.

SEI Foundation

The SEI Foundation in Sweden (Stiftelsen The Stockholm Environment Institute) consists of SEI Headquarters, SEI Asia, SEI Africa, SEI Latin America and SEI Oxford.

In Sweden, the foundation’s organization number is 802014-0763 and the VAT number is SE802014076301. Since 1988, the foundation has produced annual audited financial reports.

Associated centres

SEI Tallinn, SEI US and SEI York are separate administrative entities within SEI.

• SEI Tallinn is a non-profit research organization incorporated in Estonia as a foundation. The SEI Executive Director chairs the SEI Tallinn Board. SEI Tallinn’s annual reports with financial details are provided on the SEI Tallinn page.
• SEI York is a unit in the Department of Environment and Geography at the University of York. It is governed by a formal agreement between SEI and University of York, and co-chaired by the SEI Executive Director and the University of York’s Dean of the Faculty for Science through a board.
• SEI US is a non-profit research organization with 501c (3) status in the United States. The SEI Executive Director chairs the SEI US Board. SEI US’s annual reports with financial details are provided on the SEI US page.

Steering documents

SEI’s operations are governed through three levels of internal steering documents. These express procedures, principles, accountabilities, instructions and routines of work at SEI following organizational goals and legal and other requirements.

Policies and guidelines

Our global policies and guidelines are short principle-based documents that bind everyone at SEI. They provide practical guidance and clear processes to enable individuals, teams and centres to work effectively. Ownership of guidelines is determined by topic and implementation responsibility. For example, they may cover communications activities such as social media, written publications, digital content and best practices on capacity building and proposal writing. They include:

• Anti-corruption
• Business sector
• Due diligence
• Ethical practice and peer review
• Environmental policy
• Equity.

Instructions

Instructions are detailed and operational. They can either be SEI-wide or centre-specific.

Instructions may include: finance and administrative procedures, travel instructions, project management instructions, position and promotion procedures, procurement instructions, anti-harassment complaint procedures and work environment instructions.