Council Working Group for the
Elaboration of the Draft Strategic Plan
and the Draft Financial Plan, 2008-2011
Document: WG-SP-FP-06/32
13 June 2006
English
Comments from ITU Membership
AUSTRALIA
COMMENTS ON THE DRAFT ITU FINANCIAL PLAN, 2008-2011
Identifying Potential Areas of Overlap and Duplication in
ITU Activities and Outputs
Introduction
Recent budget and financial documents produced by the ITU provide an important
opportunity for Member States to examine the finances and activities of the Union. In
particular, the most useful documents are those that have been produced as a part of
the implementation of Results-Based Budgeting and those produced in the
development of the Draft Financial Plan for 2008-2011.
Based on these documents, the Australian delegation has sought to identify some
areas of potential overlap or duplication between and within the Sectors’ and the
General Secretariat’s activities and outputs. Due to the lack of detailed information
on these activities it is not always clear whether duplication is indeed occurring, or
whether complementary activities are being undertaken with full coordination
between the output or function areas.
Eliminating unnecessary overlaps or duplication in existing ITU activities may
provide scope to fund the additional activities requested in Annex II (Pending Items)
of the Financial Plan (C06/23, + Add. 1) and revised in the Income and expenditure
revised estimates document (WG-SP-FP-06/27). We are concerned that there is
duplication in the Annex II Pending Items, as highlighted by the USA (in WG-SP-FP06/21), and that this continues to be the case for the revised estimates of the additional
activities (WG-SP-FP-06/27). These two areas of potential duplication are analysed
and discussed below.
Outputs
The most visible area of potential duplication is the public activities and outputs of the
ITU in the form of workshops, conferences, seminars and workshops. In the last two
years, or upcoming in the next year, the ITU has held or will hold numerous
workshops, seminars or meetings against the themes, for example, of cybersecurity
and NGN:
Cybersecurity - ITU-D Workshop on IP and Cybersecurity (October 2006);
ITU-D Workshop on IP and Cybersecurity (September 2006); ITU-D Meeting
on mechanisms for cooperation on cybersecurity and combating spam
(September 2006); ITU-D Workshop on IP and cybersecurity (June 2006);
Strategy and Policy Unit (SPU) is organising Partnerships for Global
Cybersecurity (May 2006); SPU organised Thematic Meeting on
Cybersecurity (June 2005); ITU-D/EU regional seminar on cybersecurity
(May 2005); ITU-T Cybersecurity Symposium II (March 2005); ITU-T
Cybersecurity Symposium (October 2004).
NGN - ITU-D and ITU-T workshop on NGN (May 2006); SPU organised
What Rules for IP-enabled NGNs? (March 2006); ITU-T Workshop on NGN
Technology and Standardisation (March 2006); ITU-T NGN Industry Event
(November 2005); ITU-D Scenarios de transition vers les reseaux de nouvelle
generation (NGN) (November 2005); ITU-D Workshop on next generation
networks (October 2005); ITU-D Workshop on New Generation Networks
(August 2005); ITU-T Training Seminar on NGN (July 2005); ITU-T Seminar
on Standardisation of the NGN and ICT Services Development (July 2005);
ITU-D Regional seminar on evolving network infrastructures to NGN (June
2005); ITU-T Workshop on NGN in collaboration with IETF (May 2005);
ITU-T NGN Technical Workshop (March 2005).
What may be of concern is not the total number of events being undertaken in a short
timeframe on these themes, but that at least three separate areas of the ITU are
scheduling these events (SPU, BDT and TSB). Although it is our understanding that
the scheduling is coordinated, it is not clear whether these events are being delivered
by each Sector and the General Secretariat (GS) separately, or in a centralised
approach. In addition, there is the potential for duplication of expertise and staff
resources – this was highlighted at the recent APEC Tel Symposium on Spam &
Related Threats, held in April 2006 in Calgary, Canada, where three representatives
of the ITU attended (one from the SPU, one from the BDT and one from the TSB). It
is not clear to us whether this is an efficient and appropriate use of resources and
whether better coordination, including the use of common or pooled resources, could
further reduce costs.
Additionally in relation to cybersecurity activities, note 12 of the Income and
expenditure revised estimates document (WG-SP-FP-06/27) proposes the need for
additional staff resources to implement decisions of WTSA-04 at an estimated cost of
CHF 2.4 million (although CHF 0.2 million less than estimated in the initial Draft
Financial Plan). The first issue this raises is how has the ITU been able to fund these
activities in the two years since the WTSA without these additional resources. In
addition, the potential overlap indicated above between the BDT, TSB and GS implies
that there may be more efficient and cost-effective approaches in delivering the
cybersecurity and spam outputs arising from WTSA-04.
Note 13 of the same document proposes the need for additional staff resources at an
estimated cost of CHF 3.4 million to implement WTDC-06 decisions. Furthermore,
note 14 requests funds for the WTDC-06 Regional Initiatives at an estimated cost of
CHF 4.5 million: this amount was not reflected in the initial Draft Financial Plan
produced in March 2006. Australia encourages the regional activities of the ITU and
continues to fund such activities as an extra-budgetary contribution, including funding
a staff position in the Asia Pacific Regional Office (Bangkok). The two separate
amounts indicated under notes 13 and 14 raise the question as to whether efficiencies
and cost-savings can be found in any overlaps between these two sets of activities,
both of which form an important part of the Doha Action Plan.
Functions
There is also the possibility of overlap and duplication between functional areas
within the Union’s internal structure, notwithstanding the efficiency improvements
that have been introduced in recent years. As a point of reference, we have analysed
the Organisational Chart or Functional Directory of the ITU (dated 1 April 2006 and
distributed to Councillors at the 2006 Council). This brief analysis revealed the
following:
• The GS Coordination Unit has an area responsible for SG Conferences and
Meetings and there is a separate Conferences Department in GS; BDT has a
Conferences Unit; and TSB has a Workshops SDO Coordination and Promotion
Division.
• The GS has a Personnel Administration Division and a Human Resources
Development Division; and the BDT also has a Field Personnel Service and a
Human Resources Development function.
• There is an Information Services Department within GS; and BDT has an
Information Systems Support Service.
• There are at least two areas within the ITU responsible for strategic and statistical
analysis: notably the GS Strategic Policy Unit; and the BDT Policy, Strategies and
Financing Department (in particular the Market, Economics and Finance Unit).
• The GS and each Sector also have areas separately responsible for Publications,
for Membership, for Promotion and for Finance functions in most cases.
Again, due to the lack of detailed information on these functions it is not always clear
whether duplication is indeed occurring, or whether complementary and distinctly
separate activities are being undertaken, with coordination between the function areas.
As a specific example, the recent World Telecommunication Development
Conference 2006 highlighted the issue of what is the appropriate area within the ITU
that should be planning, organising and delivering conferences and assemblies for the
Sectors. Further investigation should be undertaken as to whether it is efficient and
cost effective for the Sectors or for the GS Conferences Department to be delivering
the conferences and assemblies, as well as seminars, workshops and other public
outputs of the ITU.
World Summit for the Information Society
We note that there is an area within the Coordination Unit responsible for World
Summit functions with at least two staff resources. Note 10 of the Income and
expenditure revised estimates document (WG-SP-FP-06/27) proposes the need for
additional staff resources for WSIS implementation. We note that the estimated
expenditure on this activity has been reduced from CHF 4.4 million to CHF
3.8 million and recognise there may be the potential for further reduction.
In particular, in the lead up to the 2006 World Telecommunication Development
Conference, an updated matrix was produced that demonstrated the strong overlap
between the WSIS Action Lines and the ITU-D Programmes. This would indicate
that existing or expected activities of the ITU will deliver on the WSIS outcomes
without the need for additional resources.
In addition, the ITU has been identified as the lead facilitator for Action Lines C2 and
C5, but it should be recognised that a number of other organisations are involved and
are contributing to the implementation of these specific action lines. For example,
broader participation in C2 implementation is being encouraged and we understand
from the recent C2 meeting that the Association for Progressive Communications
(APC) and the World Bank may come in as co-facilitators, with the business
community considering its options in this regard. The ITU should avoid duplicating
the activities of other organisations and coordinate closely with them.
Furthermore, the ITU should continue to identify those activities it already undertakes
to facilitate the implementation of the C2 and C5 Action Lines. These activities
include the work on information and communication infrastructure (particularly the
work of ITU-T) and on building confidence and security in the use of ICTs (including
the work of ITU-T, ITU-D and the GS if appropriate – refer to Outputs above and the
discussion on cybersecurity activities). Efficient use should be made of existing or
planned ITU workshops and seminars that could facilitate implementation of these
action lines, which includes scheduling action line meetings as a part of these
activities if required.
Activities
To implement the new activity-based time-tracking system in the ITU, the Capgemini
consultants identified 147 different activity types (as indicated in the Council Group
on Financial Regulations document WG-RG-6/5). These are referenced in Council
Decision 535 and are available in a spreadsheet on the Council Group on Financial
Regulations web site (http://www.itu.int/council/finregs/Act-Out-090305.xls).
The spreadsheet distinguishes between sector-specific activities and those activities
undertaken across all the Sectors and the General Secretariat (“General Activities”).
Based on the activity-based time-tracking system it would be informative to
determine where identical activities are being undertaken across a number of
functional areas of the Union. Specifically, the following activities were identified as
General Activities in the spreadsheet:
Database management
Document management
Web site management
General administration
Management and coordination
Membership management
Promotion
Publications (preparation and production)
Participation in ITU meetings, conferences and workshops
Plan, organise and follow-up meetings/conferences/workshops
Reporting
Representation of the Union
Research and analysis activities
Security coordination and organization
Delivery of HR services and functions
It would seem appropriate to determine whether these General Activities are being
duplicated and whether this is efficient and cost-effective. The time-tracking system
should highlight which of these activities are resource-intensive to a number of
functional areas and further analysis may reveal opportunities for stream-lining or
centralising identical functions.