Council endorses landmark ITU Gender Equality and Mainstreaming Policy

The Council endorsed a landmark policy to further mainstream gender equality across the whole range of ITU’s strategic plans, activities and programmes.

The policy embodies a shared vision for integrating a gender perspective throughout the Union and provides a tool to ensure that gender equality remains a core consideration in implementation of ITU Resolution 70 (Rev.Guadalajara, 2010).

In acclaiming the Council’s endorsement of the policy, ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun I. Touré said: ”I believe this will go down as a landmark event in ITU’s development. It is a key element in ensuring that all can reach their full potential.”

Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Chief of ITU's Strategic Planning and Membership Department appealed to Member States to contribute to the ITU special fund created to put the gender equality policy into practice.

After noting that gender parity in the ICT field could only be achieved if more girls study engineering, Ms Bogdan-Martin encouraged all Member States to present women candidates for ITU posts.

Presenting a report (Document C13/39) on ITU activities in relation to implementation of Resolution 70 during the period 2012-2013, Ms Bogdan-Martin noted that they included the organization of the Girls in ICT Day events; the Tech Needs Girls three-year Global Campaign launched on 26 April 2012; the creation of the Broadband Commission Working Group on Gender chaired by the UNDP Administrator, Helen Clark; and several activities carried out with other UN agencies, in particular the newly created UN Women.

The report also noted that ITU has started the process of reporting on its implementation of the UN System Wide Action Plan (SWAP) on gender equality and women’s empowerment that it endorsed at the CEB meeting in April 2012.

Conformance and interoperability receives overwhelming support

Many countries took the floor — the United States, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, India, Italy, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Korea and China —  all of them expressing their support for ITU’s conformance and interoperability (C&I) programme. The programme is based on four pillars: conformity assessment; interoperability events; capacity building, and establishment of test centres in developing countries. Pillars 1 and 2 are led by the Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (TSB) and pillars 3 and 4 by the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT).

Reinhard Scholl, Deputy to the TSB Director, reported on progress and future activities of the programme. He said that since the ITU secretariat had issued its progress report (Document C13/24) discussions had taken place in the Radiocommunication Advisory Group (RAG) and the Telecommunication Standardization Advisory Group (TSAG). As a result, the secretariat revised the C&I action plan taking into account these discussions as well as comments made in a contribution from the United States (Document C13/77). Mr Scholl thanked all those who contributed, making the C&I action plan stronger (Document C13/DT/6).

WTSA-12 outcome and follow-up: In November 2012, the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA-12) revised Resolution 76 on conformity and interoperability. This revised Resolution instructs the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) to implement the C&I programme action plan agreed by Council 2012. It tasks ITU-T Study Group 11 (Signalling requirements, protocols and test specifications) to coordinate the programme across all ITU-T study groups.

At its meeting from 25 February to 1 March 2013, ITU-T Study Group 11 created a working party on “conformance and interoperability testing” and revised the terms of reference of the Joint Coordination Activity on Conformance and Interoperability Testing.

ITU-R updates: In June 2012, RAG noted that there were some ITU-R Recommendations that could be used for conformance assessment or interoperability testing. RAG then advised ITU-R study groups to review any such ITU‑R Recommendations and report to RAG in 2013. By its meeting in May this year, RAG had not received any input. ITU-R will continue to collaborate with ITU‑T and ITU‑D on conformance and interoperability testing and provide these Sectors with information when requested.

Turning now to the C&I action plan, Mr Scholl gave an update on the implementation of the four pillars.

Pillar 1 – Conformity assessment: There are various routes to enter information into the conformity database. Mr Scholl said he was happy to report that a first lab had achieved ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation, meeting the “Route 1” requirement of the ITU Conformity Assessment programme. The accreditation specifically covers Recommendation ITU-T G.8265.1 on timing and synchronization.

In March 2013, ITU-T Study Group 11 encouraged the TSB Director to explore possibilities to cooperate with IECEE – the IEC system for conformity testing and certification of Electrotechnical Equipment and Components. IECEE has a wide acclaim in the industry, including telecommunication manufacturers.

The Executive Secretary of IECEE gave a presentation to ITU-T Study Groups 11 and 13 in February 2013 and to TSAG during its meeting in June 2013. IECEE has offered ITU to use its platform if the Union’s membership so wishes.

A workshop on conformance assessment organized by the World Telecommunication Standardization Collaboration, which is made up of ITU and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), will take place on 21-22 November 2013.

Pillar 2 – ITU Interoperability events:  The coming months will see a joint ITU-APT interop/showcasing event on NGN, IPTV (Bangkok, 9-12 Sept 2013). Further events planned are a joint ITU-Continua e-health interop/showcasing event; a joint ITU-T/G3-Alliance to test ITU-T G.9903, and a joint ITU-T/Bluetooth interop to test ITU-T P.1100 and ITU-T P.1110 on narrow-band and wideband hands-free communication in motor vehicles.

The C&I action plan also contains a call for ITU-T study groups to develop system road maps, identify and define the interfaces across which interoperability is needed, and collaborate with other organizations developing standards for those interfaces.

Pillar 3 – Capacity building: The ITU secretariat continues to collaborate with national and international organizations that can assist in capacity building in developing countries to train technical staff and policy-makers on various aspects of interoperability testing, conformance testing and laboratories accreditation. Upcoming events include training on conformance and interoperability for the following regions: the Americas (Campinas, 24-28 June 2013); Forum for Asia-Pacific (Myanmar, 4-6 September 2013); Africa (Tunis, 14-18 October 2013), as well as a sub-regional workshop for Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries to promote the development and implementation of conformance and interoperability programmes.

Pillar 4 – Creation of test labs and establishment of C&I programmes in the regions: Memoranda of Understanding have been signed with CERT (Research and Studies Telecommunication Center, Tunisia), CPqD (Brazil), Sintesio (Slovenia), Tilab (Telecom Italia) and ZNIIS (Russian Federation). The ITU secretariat is producing a set of revised guidelines on building testing labs for conformance and interoperability of equipment and systems in developing countries.  It continues collaborating with UNIDO, ILAC, IAF and IEC on how they could assist in the establishment of, or partnering with, ICT test centres. It is finalizing a feasibility study for building a type approval testing laboratory for electronic communication equipment. The ITU secretariat is also providing a set of guidelines for the development, implementation and management of mutual recognition agreements.

Following this presentation and comments from the floor in support of progress so far, the Council requested that Document C13/24 on “conformance and interoperability programme status report and action plan” be revised as a final text.

Welcoming the strong support of the membership for implementation of the C&I action plan after what was at times quite heated debate in the past, Mr Scholl said: “I haven’t heard anything so positive in the past five years. I am glad that we have now gone to smoother waters where we can implement the programme.”

Strengthening regional presence

On the question of strengthening ITU’s regional presence (Resolution 25, Rev. Guadalajara 2010), many countries  welcomed developments in several key areas highlighted in Document C13/25.

Work continues to further empower field offices. Measures have been taken with respect to delegation of authority, training and improved connectivity between the field and headquarters. 

Work efficiency is being improved. BDT processes are reviewed with a view to aligning them to ISO general principles. A project has been developed to improve electronic working methods for regional and area offices.

The grade structure has been standardized and staffing levels have been reviewed accordingly. Meanwhile, the capacity of field offices continues to be strengthened in specific areas of expertise through recruitment of associate technical experts and support staff under regional initiatives and projects.

Cooperation with ITU regional and area offices and relevant regional organizations continues to improve. An example of this is the coordination between the General Secretariat, the three Bureaux and the regional offices in preparing ITU global meetings.

Brazil, while appreciative of this progress sought additional information in line  with Resolution 25. Reports to the Council  should contain more information  on “the evolution and development of activities, including implementation of projects and regional initiatives, seminars/workshops, event participation, regional preparatory meetings and attraction of new Sector Members” (Document C13/72).

Many countries supported Brazil’s request. While acknowledging the request by Brazil and the Council, support for measures taken by ITU to strengthen its regional presence, the secretariat recalled the various elements of information that are actually already being provided to membership in relation to the actions and activities that the field offices are performing in the implementation of the ITU mandates.

First, Member States are informed on activities carried out in the region through the Regional Development Forums, which also provide an opportunity for Member States and Sector Members to review the consolidated regional initiatives and provide further guidance on implementing projects which fall under these initiatives.

Second, additional information can be found in the BDT operational plans which are available to membership on the BDT website.

Third, the Quarterly Performance Report contains additional information (financial and operational). This report is also posted on the ITU-D website.

BDT Director, Brahima Sanou, pointed out that, in line with the results-based management, the approach adopted so far has been to report on results rather than activities.

It seems that there is a contradiction between the results-based management approach now in force at ITU and the requirement of Resolution 25.  This could be a matter to be brought before the next Plenipotentiary Conference in 2014.

It was agreed to note both documents from BDT and Brazil, and to include all comments on the issue of strengthening ITU’s regional presence in the Summary Record.

Further to the Chairman’s ruling, the BDT Director emphasized his commitment to strengthening the regional presence, saying: “I was a Regional Director myself. And I am personally committed to regional presence because the best way to deal with suffering is to make sure that those who come after you don't suffer.”

ITU steps up efforts to reduce ICT environmental footprint and climate change impacts

The Council noted with satisfaction ITU’s continuing frontline role in efforts to minimize the impact of ICTs on the environment and to strengthen the forecasting, resilience and response capacities of Member States to withstand the adverse impacts of climate change.

In presenting a report outlining ITU activities in relation to these challenges for the period March 2012 to May 2013 (Document C13/33), Ms Bogdan-Martin urged all Member States to cooperate in the organization’s work to address them. 

The report, which summarizes ITU action to implement Resolution 182 (Guadalajara, 2010), is divided into three sections:

Section 1 focuses in particular on the following ITU activities regarding climate change and the protection of the environment:

• Climate monitoring: ITU-R has advanced in the implementation of the outcomes of WRC-12 related to climate monitoring, and ITU-T has continued to investigate the potential of using submarine telecommunication cables for ocean and climate monitoring and disaster warning.
•  Mitigation: ITU-T Study Group 5 has approved new recommendations to assess the environmental footprint of the ICT sector and its contribution to reduce emissions from other sectors.
•  Adaptation: ITU-D has continued to provide assistance to ITU Member States in developing National Emergency Telecommunications Plan and Early Warning Systems.
•  Capacity building: ITU organized the 8th ITU Symposium on ICTs, the Environment and Climate Change, in Torino, Italy (May 2013), and released 17 new publications that will expand the knowledge on Green ICTs available to Member States.
•  E-waste: ITU recently released the results of the first global survey on e-waste, and advanced on new recommendations to reduce e-waste.

Section 2 presents ITU’s contribution to the United Nations environmental agenda, with a particular focus on current negotiations within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Section 3 details progress achieved by ITU as an organization in approaching climate neutrality. For the most recently reported year (2011) ITU was among the best performers in the UN system in this regard.

Ms Bogdan-Martin also presented the Council with an update (Document C13/53) on ITU’s role in implementing the outcomes of the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20). The report summarizes ITU’s efforts and activities in mainstreaming the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development in its work, as mandated under ITU Resolution 1353.

The report also refers to progress in preparing the analytical report to be presented to the 2014 Council session on the implications of the Rio+20 outcomes for ITU and the identification of measures to be adopted by ITU to further integrate the three dimensions of sustainable development in the Union’s work.

Membership issues

Entities dealing with telecommunication matters: Ten entities dealing with telecommunication matters had been provisionally included in the lists of Sector Members (to participate in the work of the Sectors) and of Associates (to participate in a given study group). The Council reviewed and confirmed the following entities as Sector Members: ABI Research (United States), AKHET Consulting FZ LLE (United Arab Emirates), Centre for Internet and Society (India), Converge IT Consulting (United States), IRPO ACISO (Russian Federation), Platform Health Ltd (United Kingdom), and The People's Vision SARL (Switzerland). Additionally, the following Associates were confirmed: Climate Associates Ltd (United Kingdom), International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium, Inc. (United States), and The People's Vision SARL (Switzerland).

Exemption from financial contributions on the basis of reciprocity: The Council approved the recommendation of the Secretary-General regarding requests for exemption from fees by 11 entities of a regional or international character, based on the understanding of mutual benefits and reciprocity with these entities. These exemptions will be valid until the next Plenipotentiary Conference. The approved entities include: Child Helpline International, Netherlands; Commonwealth ITU Group, United Kingdom; Consumers International, United Kingdom; Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO), United Kingdom; East African Communications Organization (EACO), Rwanda; Ecole supérieure multinationale des telecommunications (ESMT), Senegal; FTTH Council Asia Pacific, Singapore; Global Knowledge Partnership Foundation (GKPF), Spain; International Center for Promotion of Enterprises (ICPE), Slovenia; Pacific Islands Telecommunications Association (PITA), Fiji; and Union Economique et Monétaire Ouest Africaine (UEMOA), Burkina Faso.

Council of Europe: The Council of Europe, an intergovernmental organization with headquarters in Strasbourg (France), has been granted full exemption in respect of its participation in the work of ITU, on the basis of reciprocity. In this regard, the Council noted that ITU already has observer status in a number of the Council of Europe's steering and convention committees. ITU is also recognized as a partner within the Council of Europe on Internet governance strategy for the period 2012-2015, all without any requirement for a financial contribution from ITU. In addition, ITU has a particular interest in following the activities of the Council of Europe, especially those relating to the issue of cybercrime.

Exceptionally, the exemption has been granted with retroactive effect from 4 December 2012 – the opening date of the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT-12). In accordance with the rules in force at ITU, official participation at WCIT-12 as an observer in an advisory capacity entailed, for any international organization not exempted by the ITU Council, the payment of a financial contribution. The amount in question for WCIT-12 was CHF 5202.02, but has been exceptionally waived for the Council of Europe, following a lively legal debate in plenary.

Council chooses “Broadband for Sustainable Development” as theme for next year’s celebrations

The Council has chosen as theme for World Telecommunication and Information Society Day 2014 “Broadband for Sustainable Development”. Why this theme? It will be recalled that the World Summit on the Information Society recognized that broadband will facilitate the delivery of a broader range of services and applications, promote investment and provide Internet access at affordable prices to both existing and new users. The theme will help focus attention on a multistakeholder commitment to achieve universal access to broadband connectivity and content and foster political will on achieving this objective.

Free online access extended to Administrative Regulations, Council Resolutions and Decisions and other ITU publications

Following consultations conducted by the Russian Federation as tasked by the plenary on Wednesday, 12 June (see Issue No 2. of the Highlights), it has been decided to extend free online access to:

• Council Resolutions and Decisions to the ITU membership on a permanent basis.
• ITU-R Handbooks on radio-frequency spectrum management to the general public on a permanent basis. These include the ITU‑R Handbooks on National Spectrum Management, Computer Aided Techniques for Spectrum Management, and Spectrum Monitoring.

The Council also decided that:

• paper copies of the ITU-R Handbooks on radio-frequency spectrum management will continue to be charged for on the basis of a two-tier pricing policy, whereby Member States, Sector Members and Associates and Academia pay a price based on cost recovery, whereas all others, such as non-members, pay a "market price” determined by the ITU’s Sales and Marketing Division.