History of ITU-T Regional Groups

ITU-T SG3 Regional Group for Africa (SG3 RG-AFR) was one of the first Regional Groups that was created in 1968 by the IV^th Plenary Assembly of the CITT which has since become ITU-T. Below the cover page of the final Report of Study Group III to the Plenary Assembly (Doc. AP IV/91) which refers to the creation of the regional working parties. The report of Study Group III was unanimously adopted by the Plenary Assembly during the 4th plenary meeting on 17 October 1968 (reference: Doc. AP IV/117, page. 3) Following this decision, at its subsequent meeting held in Geneva, Study Group III (General tariff studies) laid down the working methods for the following Regional Tariff Working Parties:

• The Regional tariff Working Party for Latin America (TAL)
• The Regional tariff Working Party for Africa (TAF)
• The Regional tariff Working Party for Asia (TAS)
• The Regional tariff Working Party for Europe (TEUR)

 

Regional Groups: Looking Forward

Regional Groups within ITU-T Study Groups have proven effective mechanisms to assist in bridging the standardization gap by stimulating effective participation in ITU-T Study Groups and increasing the number and quality of contributions from developing countries that could eventually lead to standards. ITU-T now has 23 regional groups (see figure below):

• Eight for Africa (Study Groups 2, 3, 5, 11, 12, 13, 17 and 20)
• Four for the Americas (Study Groups 2, 3, 5 and 20)
• Five for the Arab States (Study Groups 2, 3, 5, 17 and 20)
• Two for Asia and the Pacific (Study Groups 3 and 5)
• Three for Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Transcaucasia (Study Groups 3, 11 and 20)
• One for Europe and the Mediterranean Basin (Study Group 3).

 

50^th Anniversary of ITU-T Regional Groups @WSIS18

21 March 2018, Room K1, ITU Headquarters

Agenda
Visit the event Photo Album here!

	​Opening Session
14:00-14:20	​​Congratulatory remarks Video message, Chaesub Lee, Director of TSB, ITU Abdoulkarim Soumaila, Secretary General of African Telecommunication Union H.E. Ms Aruna Sundararajan, Secretary, (Telecom), Ministry of Communications, India Opening remarks             Bilel Jamoussi, Chief Study Groups Department, TSB, ITU
​​14:20 - 14:40​	​Overview of BSG Programme             Bilel Jamoussi, Chief Study Groups Department, TSB, ITU
14:40 - 15:00	​Coffee Break - kindly supported by
​​15:00 - 15:30	​​Roundtable 1: ITU-T Study Group Chairmen Perspectives Nasser Al Marzouqi , Chairman of ITU-T SG20 Leo Lehmann, Chairman of ITU-T SG13 Heung Youl Youm, Chairman of ITU-T SG17
​​15:30 - 16:10	​Roundtable 2: Views from the Regional Groups Abossé Akue-Kpakpo, UEMOA Alexey Borodin, Russia Sharmin Sultana, Bangladesh Ahmed Said, Egypt Cynthia Reddock-Downes, Trinidad and Tobago Badar Ali Said Al Salehi, Oman Wala Latrous, Tunisia
16:10 - 16:15 ​	​Closing