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-06/15
24 February 2006
English
Comments from ITU Membership
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
COMMENTS ON THE DRAFT ITU STRATEGIC PLAN, 2008-2011
Introduction
As internal reform efforts continue in the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) with
respect to achieving results-based budgeting, the Strategic Plan becomes an even more important
tool in guiding the Union’s activities. The importance of the linkage between the Strategic Plan,
Operational Plans and Financial Plan 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, as well
as the requirement of a balanced budget, in mind.
The United States of America thanks the Working Group for the elaboration of the Draft Strategic
Plan for its efforts, in particular Ms. Marie-Odile Beau for her leadership in this regard. We offer
the following general comments, as well as specific edits, on the current draft (Document WP-SPFP-06/10). The United States may offer additional views as the process toward developing the ITU
Strategic Plan continues.
General Comments
Throughout the document, when referring to the outcomes or results of WSIS, the text should be
drafted to indicate “the relevant outcomes of WSIS.” When the text refers to the role of the ITU it
should include the phrasing “within its mandate.” While the ITU was instrumental in organizing
the WSIS, some of the topics addressed in the Summit process are beyond the scope of ITU work
(e.g., content issues, which fall under the responsibility of UNESCO or issues under the mandates
of other UN or non-UN bodies). The United States believes that, as a foundation for the Union’s
work, the Strategic Plan should be clear in referencing which WSIS outcomes are relevant and
within the mandate of the ITU.
Whenever participation by civil society is referenced, it should be contained in brackets with a
reference to footnote number 1. The Unites States continues to support a transparent and open ITU
so that all Members can fully participate. The issue of civil society participation, however, raises
some budgetary and legal concerns that should be fully contemplated and discussed by the
membership. Until these issues have been resolved, references to civil society should remain in
brackets.
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Lastly, the objectives and output, as well as accompanying tables, prepared for the ITU-T and ITUD are vague and overly broad. The United States believes that the objectives for all Sectors should
be clearly tied to the purposes of the Union and should reflect the requirement of a balanced budget.
In this draft, it appears that only the objectives and outputs of the ITU-R meet that condition. It
could be that the purposes of the Union with regard to ITU-T and ITU-D do not offer a strategic
vision and need to be revisited at the Plenipotentiary Conference. In addition, the outputs for the
ITU-T and ITU-D should be concrete and crafted so as to lend themselves to performance
indicators. The United States requests that revisions to Sections 5 and 6 be developed and is willing
to work with all Members in the regard. While the upcoming World Telecommunication
Development Conference (WTDC) provides an opportunity to redraft the ITU-D portion, we
suggest the ITU-T portion be sent to TSAG for discussion.
Specific Edits – Section by Section
Part I, The Union and its membership

Section 2.2 “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/must/shall] 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.
Reason: 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.

Section 3.2, Goal 1: 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 the a leading role in United
Nations system initiatives on information and communication technologies, as called for by the
WSIS.
Reason: 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.

Section 3.2 Goal 7. The United States prefers Proposal 1.
Reason: 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.
Part 11, The Sectors
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
Section 5.1, The mission of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector is to be the
provide a unique, world wide venue for industry and government to work together to foster the
development and use of open, interoperable, non-discriminatory and demand-driven
international standards that take into account the needs of users in order to create an
environment where users can access affordable services world wide regardless of underlying
technology, particularly in developing countries.
Reason: While the ITU-T is a key player in the development of international standards it is not
the only organization that does so. The United States believes that the Strategic Plan should
reflect this.

Section 5.2.1, Objective 1: Develop and publish the required global standards at the right time
in a timely fashion;
Reason: Determining what time is the right time is subjective and implies there is a wrong time
to develop standards. The United States believes that international standards are important and
the intent is to provide these standards in a timely fashion.

Section 5.2.2, Objective2: Identify relevant areas for future standardization projects to be
initiated within the ITU-T, while remaining aware of the ongoing work in other standards
bodies and collaborating with them as appropriate in order to reduce duplication, avoid
inconsistencies, and ensure that ITU-T work creates added value;
Reason: The ITU-T has a long and successful history of collaborating productively with other
relevant international standards bodies. The United States believes that this collaboration is one
of the hallmarks of ITU-T work, as referenced in previous Strategic Plans, and should be
included in the list of ITU-T objectives.

Section 5.2.7, Objective 7: Provide support and assistance to the membership, mainly to
developing countries, in relation to standardization matters, information and communication
network infrastructure and applications, and in particular with respect to (a) bridging the digital
divide, and (b) producing providing relevant training for capacity building.
Reason: ITU-T work in sharing and disseminating technical standards and capacity building in
this regard, particularly to developing countries is vital to the development of a global
interoperable communications environment. The United States believes that the experts in ITUT should be providing that training not just producing information for the training as is currently
suggested.
Part III – The secretariat

Part III – The secretariat should be renamed the General Secretariat and linked to the General
Secretariat Operational Plan provided to Council. The objectives should be revised accordingly.
Reason: As currently presented, this section has no direct correlation to ITU operational plans,
which are important in maintaining the necessary linkage between the Strategic Plan, the
Operational Plans and the Financial Plan required to fully implement results-based budgeting.
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
Table 7.1 Objectives and Outputs of the Secretariat, should be revised to reflect the outputs
identified in the General Secretariat Operational Plan. Individual meetings and conferences
such as the Plenipotentiary Conference, WTFP, Council and Working Groups should remain, as
should General Secretariat Publications. Preparation of the budget should also be included. If
needed, there could be one category for programs undertaken by the General Secretariat that do
not fall to Sector-specific outputs, but references to individual programs such as GMPCS,
Internet Policy, Bridging Digital Divide Program, etc. should be eliminated.
Reason: The objectives and outputs of the Secretariat should be consistent with the
corresponding Operational Plan.
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