INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION UNION
Council Working Group for the Elaboration of the
Draft Strategic Plan and the Draft Financial Plan,
2008-2011
Document: WG-SP-FP/10
28 October 2005
English
Geneva, 27 – 28 October, 2005
Chairman of the Working Group
REPORT OF THE FIRST MEETING OF THE COUNCIL WORKING GROUP
FOR THE ELABORATION OF THE DRAFT FINANCIAL PLAN 2008-2011
Background
In line with the ITU Constitution (No. 62A), the 2005 session of the ITU Council initiated the
preparation process for the elaboration of a draft strategic plan and a draft financial plan for 20082011. It adopted Decision 527, which foresees the establishment of a working group on the elaboration
of the draft strategic and financial plans.
The first meeting of the working Group was held on 27-28 October 2005. The present document
covers the outcome of the second day of discussions on the financial plan, open to ITU Member States
only. The discussion on the draft strategic plan of the Union, open to all ITU Member States and
Sector Members, is reflected in a separate document (Doc WG-SP-FP/08).
Outcome of the Meeting
In her opening remarks, the Chairman outlined the objective of the meeting, which was to determine a
methodology for the elaboration of the 2008-2011 financial plan, and to give orientations to the
General-Secretariat regarding the content of the plan. She suggested that the working group only
submits to Council a preliminary draft of the financial plan, which would be furthermore developed on
the basis of Council’s decisions on the draft strategic plan.
The working group then concentrated on contributions from Member States. The only written
contribution (Doc WG-SP-FP/04) was submitted by Canada which focused in parts B and C on the
elaboration of the draft financial plan and on the review of Resolution 91 (Minneapolis, 1998)
concerning the issue of cost recovery for some ITU products and services.
Regarding the elaboration of the draft financial plan, Canada proposed:
- to elaborate four options based on zero nominal growth (ZNG), zero real growth (ZRG), a
decrease of 1% and an increase of 1% of the level of the contributory unit,
- to enunciate a set of basic principles in order to provide a clear linkage between strategic
and financial planning, i.e. setting priorities,
- to use the concept of “unfunded mandated activities” (UMACs), which was first included
in the draft financial plan presented to the 2002 Plenipotentiary Conference.
With respect to Resolution 91, the Canadian suggestion was to determine whether amendments or
updates are required in light of the application of cost recovery to a variety of ITU products and
services since its adoption by the 1998 Plenipotentiary Conference. This exercise might take into
account the philosophy and purpose of cost recovery within the overall financial framework of ITU,
which activities should be continued or be candidate for cost recovery, and the continued validity of
such concepts as “revenue generation” and “actual costs”.
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During the discussions, which focused on the elaboration of the draft financial plan, the need to
establish priorities for the main future activities of the Union was emphasized due to the limited
financial resources of the Union. It was stated that only when membership had a general idea of key
activities, could it ensure the proper resources for those activities and decide on which activities
should be left over. The need for greater transparency from the ITU in establishing priorities was also
emphasized.
The way forward proposed by Canada was agreed by the working group and the General-Secretariat
was tasked to develop the four scenarios mentioned. The General-Secretariat would also submit to the
working group, for comments, the guidelines established for the elaboration of the financial plan once
they had been agreed by the Sectors and the Secretary General (probably by the end of November or
early December).
To illustrate the complexity and reality of the linking process of strategic, operational and financial
planning, the General-Secretariat presented the outline of the technical implementation project of
Resolution 1243 (Improvement of the Linkage of strategic, operational and financial planning). This
presentation is available on the web site.
In concluding the meeting, the Chairman summarized the main outcome consisting in :
- the elaboration of four scenarios by the General-Secretariat,
- outputs kept at a manageable level (i.e. global),
- the inclusion of KPIs as the work on their definition makes progress.
In order to make progress, the Chairman encouraged further contributions both on the financial plan
and Resolution 91. Contributions on Resolution 91 could take into account the comments from Canada
in Doc WG-SP-FP/04 as well as relevant decisions of Council at its 2005 session regarding the
adoption of a new cost allocation methodology.
Next meeting
The second meeting of the working group will be held in Geneva on 30-31 January 2006.
M.-O. Beau
Chairman
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