TOWARDS A NEW ITU

With important work to reform the ITU’s structure, role and working methods now well under way, the 2000 session of ITU Council reviewed the progress so far through the preliminary report of the Working Group on Reform (WGR) and reports submitted by the Secretary-General and the Directors of each of the three ITU Sectors.

The recommendations of the Reform Advisory Panel (RAP), a specially-convened group consisting of ministers and other senior government officials, as well as industry CEOs, regulators and operators, were held by Council-2000 to represent a positive framework for transforming ITU into an organization eager to adapt to change, capable of turning challenges into opportunities, and ready to become a body where excellence is a way of life.

In June 2000, Secretary-General Yoshio Utsumi invited the United Nations Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) to assist the ITU reform process by undertaking a study on the management practices and overall efficiency of the General Secretariat. This study, which will comprise an analysis of the present situation along with proposals for a more effective structure and practical measures for responding to new challenges, will be submitted to Council in 2001.

At its final meeting for the year 2000, the Working Group on Reform focused on the urgent need to streamline the Union’s technical standardization process, an issue of particular concern to ITU Sector Members, many of whom are equipment vendors whose core business depends on stable global standards delivered in a timely manner to help them keep pace with an increasingly frenetic market.

The WGR’s final meeting, scheduled for Brazil in April 2001, will prepare a set of recommendations for submission to Council 2001. Council will take decisions on the immediate implementation of recommendations within its powers, and will transmit recommendations requiring changes to the ITU Constitution and Convention to the 2002 Plenipotentiary Conference in Marrakesh for its consideration.