The Conference enjoyed an unprecedented level of regional preparation. A series of six regional preparatory meetings were held during 2005 for the purpose of adopting appropriate development strategies at regional and sub-regional levels, based on initiatives and projects proposed by countries of all regions as well as on questions and topics relevant to their development requirements and priorities.

The output of each regional preparatory meeting was tabled at a Coordination Meeting which took place in Geneva from 12 to 13 December 2005 in conjunction with the meeting of the Telecommunication Development Advisory Group.

The Coordination Meeting consolidated the proposals to facilitate the preparation of the Doha Action Plan.

In addition to ensuring that the action taken at Doha truly reflects the development goals of all countries, based on their assessment of priorities, this preparatory process is expected to facilitate the development of a comprehensive four-year rolling operational plan for the Telecommunication Development Sector.

In addition to the programmes, the Action Plan should include six global initiatives relating to private sector, gender, youth, indigenous people, people with disabilities and on emergency telecommunications. Two cross-cutting
activities on Statistics and Information on Telecommunications/ICTs and on Partnerships are also expected to be adopted.