INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION UNION

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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-06/20
12 April 2006
English
Comments from ITU Membership
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS ON THE DRAFT ITU STRATEGIC PLAN, 2008-2011
Introduction
The United States of America continues to believe that the importance of the linkage between the
Strategic Plan, Operational Plans and Financial Plan of the International Telecommunication Union
(ITU) cannot be overstated. The Financial Plan allocates and provides a mechanism for tracking
expenditures and activities that are identified in the Operational Plans. The Operational Plans, in
identifying the activities of the Union, provide a framework for the achievement of the priority
goals and objectives of the Union, as identified in the Strategic Plan. Consequently, it is critical
that the Strategic Plan be developed with these critical linkages in mind.
The United States believes that the objectives for the three Sectors and the General Secretariat
should be clearly tied to the purposes of the Union and should reflect the requirement of a balanced
budget. The outputs for all three Sectors, as well as for the General Secretariat, should be concrete
and crafted so as to lend themselves to performance indicators and results-based budgeting. We
appreciate the attempt to incorporate the previous comments submitted by the United States in WGSP-FP-6/15 and offer the following further thoughts and edits, section by section, on the current
Draft ITU Strategic Plan that was submitted to the ITU Council in C06/18.
Part I – The Union and its membership
•
Section 2.2. The United States believes that text in the Strategic Plan that identifies the role
of the ITU in WSIS implementation and follow up should be consistent with the WSIS
documents.
Proposal: Therefore, the text should read “Drawing upon its experience, the Union should
take into account the outputs of the two phases of the World Summit on the Information
Society (WSIS), namely the Geneva Declaration, the Geneva Plan of Action, the Tunis
Commitment, and the Tunis Agenda for the Information Society. In particular special
attention should be given to those action lines where ITU has been named as moderator and
facilitator (i.e., information and communications infrastructure (C2) and building confidence
and security in the use of ICTs (C5)), in addition to those action lines in which it has been
named a partner”
•
Section 3.2, Goal 1. While the ITU role in the UN system is critical, it is one of many UN
actors identified by the WSIS outcomes as having a role. The United States believes that the
Strategic Plan should reflect this.
Proposal: Therefore the text should read “Maintaining and extending international
cooperation among all Member States and with relevant regional organizations for the
improvement and rational use of information and communication infrastructure of all kinds,
taking a leading role in United Nations system initiatives on information and
communication technologies, as called for by the WSIS.”
•
Section 3.2 Goal 7. The United States believes that Proposal 1 more fully captures the
appropriate role of the ITU with respect to helping Member States foster an enabling
environment. To maximize the economic and social benefits of the ICTs, governments must
focus on creating, within their own nations, the appropriate legal, regulatory, and policy
environment that encourages privatization, competition, and liberalization. In particular, the
role of the private sector and civil society as the driver of innovation and private investment in
the development of ICTs is critical. Value is added at the edges of the network, in both
developed and developing countries, when the domestic policy environment encourages
investment and innovation.
Proposal: For Goal 7, use proposal 1.
Part II – Sectoral Objectives and Outputs
General
The United States continues to believe that the outputs for all three Sectors, as well as for the
General Secretariat, should be concrete and crafted so as to lend themselves to performance
indicators and results-based budgeting. It is of concern that in some instances general meetings
(e.g. study groups) and/or programmatic headings are listed as outputs. We recommend that the
outputs for all the Sectors, as well as the General Secretariat, be revisited in the appropriate manner
so as to identify tangible outputs. For example, an output of the General Secretaries is not the
Plenipotentiary Conference itself, but rather the results of the Conference which is the Final Acts.
The same can be said for the World Radio Conference (WRC). The WRC is not a tangible output
of the R-Sector, rather the Radio Regulations. Line items changes to the Financial and Operational
Plans will need to be made to correspond to the new concrete objectives identified and agreed.
Section 4
As currently presented, this section does not identify the priority outputs for the ITU-R. In addition,
Table 4.1 lists meetings and/or events as outputs. The United States suggests sending this section to
the BR Director so that he can facilitate a review by ITU-R members, including a discussion at the
next Radiocommunications Advisory Group (RAG) meeting, and provide suggested revisions to the
Council Working Group.
Section 5
The objectives and corresponding outputs outlined for the ITU-T in C06/18 are broad and
somewhat vague. The United States recommends that the ITU-T portion (Part II, Section 5) be sent
to the TSB Director so that he can facilitate a review by ITU-T members, including a discussion at
the next Telecommunications Standardization Advisory Group (TSAG) meeting, and provide
suggested revisions to the Council Working Group.
Section 6
C06/29 contains a revision to the ITU-D relevant portion of the Strategic Plan that was developed at
WTDC-06. The United States recommends that the Working Group replace Part II, Section 6 with
the appropriate text contained in C06/29 as it relates to the objectives but that the outputs as
identified be sent to the BDT Director so that he can facilitate a review by ITU-D members and
provide suggested revisions to the Council Working Group.
Part III – General Secretariat objectives and intersectoral outputs
The United States does not support the “operationalization” of the General Secretariat into a fourth
sector of the Union. Recognizing that the move to results-based budgeting necessitates a link
between the Strategic, Operational and Financial Plans of the Union, we do, however, believe that
the Strategic Plan should include a section on the General Secretariat, given that there is a
corresponding operational plan for the Secretariat.
We agree with other Member States that there seems to be duplication of activities when one
compares the individual Sector outputs with the outputs of the General Secretariat. Therefore, we
suggest that this section of the Strategic Plan be substantially revised so as to focus the outputs of
the General Secretariat appropriately on the budget, Conference/meeting support, building and
infrastructure issues, and intersectoral coordination.
We note that in doing so, a series of policy related function currently preformed by the General
Secretariat (i.e., ITU New Initiatives, GMPCS, Internet Policy, etc.) would be seen to be eliminated.
While the United States believes that policy-related activities should be addressed in the three
Sectors and be based on Membership contributions, we recognize the valuable work that has been
done by the General Secretariat in this regard, often at the instruction of Resolutions adopted at the
Plenipotentiary Conference, and would invite a discussion by the Membership on how best to
resolve the issue.
Proposal 1: The text below be considered by the Working Group to serves as the baseline text
to replace the current Part III and Working Group members discuss how to best to include in the
General Secretariat outputs items which are policy-oriented in nature.
Part III – General Secretariat objectives and outputs
7.1
The mission of the ITU General Secretariat is to provide high quality, timely and efficient
services to the membership of the Union, as identified in the Constitution and Convention, and/or to
discharge other duties and responsibilities handed down in resolutions and decisions of the
Plenipotentiary Conference, the Council, conferences and assemblies.
7.2
The General Secretariat has five main objectives:
7.2.1 Objective 1: To provide the membership, the Council and the Plenipotentiary Conference
with accurate, timely, coherent and transparent information on the ITU budget, programs and
activities and their financial implications, including the thorough application of the principle of
cost-recovery and the identification of new sources of funding, as required.
7.2.2 Objective 2: To progressively improve the efficiency of the operation of the Union, by
proposing to Council a sound and balanced budget, by ensuring financial accountability, including
the implementation of results-based budgeting, effective and efficient management of conferences
and meetings, provision of cost-effective information services, enhanced security, effective
management of human resources, and, where appropriate, outsourcing.
7.2.3 Objective 3: To facilitate the internal coordination of activities among the three Sectors
where work programs are overlapping or are related so as to ensure that the membership benefits
from the full complement of expertise available within the Union.
7.2.4 Objective 4: To further enhance international cooperation, and, where agreed by the
membership, to develop innovative mechanisms for such cooperation, and to act as the depository
of international treaties and agreements, consistent with the purposes of the Union.
7.2.5 Objective 5: To improve the exchange of information among the membership and to
promote the activities of the Union in order to increase membership, encourage the use of ITU
products and services, and raise the overall visibility of the Union within the ICT industry and the
international community as a whole.
7.3
In line with the results-based budgeting approach, these objectives are linked to the outputs
of the Union as set out in Table 7.1 that follows. The three high priority outputs have been
identified as: ITU Plenipotentiary Conference, Council and its Working Groups, and the Budget.
Objective 1:
Information
distribution
to members
Objective 2:
Effective
operation of the
Union
ITU Budget
X
X
X
Plenipotentiary
Conference – Final
Acts
X
X
X
Council and
Working Group –
Membership
decisions and
guidance
X
X
ITU Buildings and
Infrastructure
Intersectoral
Coordination
Objective 3:
Efficient
internal
cooperation
X
X
Objective 4:
International
cooperation and
agreements
X
Objective 5:
Information
exchange and
ITU promotion
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