​​ITU has started the New Year by launching a new access to information policy, committing to make more information and documents held, managed, or generated by ITU, to be openly available online.

The decision was made by ITU's governing Council in 2016. It aims to bring public access to information for ITU's main conferences and meetings in line with other international organisations like the World Bank, UNDP, and UNESCO. The decision will enhance transparency to ITU's decision-making processes.

"The ITU Council decision provides more information and insight into ITU's working methods and decision-making procedures to the general public and promotes greater transparency and accountability," said Houlin Zhao, ITU Secretary-General. "One of the powers of ICTs is their ability to make organizations more trustworthy. ITU aims to lead by example."

As of 1 January 2017, input documents, summaries of decisions, reports and other output documents will be available to the public through ITU's website. This process will be a standard feature of ITU's main conferences and meetings in the coming years, including ITU Council Working Groups, ITU Advisory Groups Meetings, the upcoming World Telecommunication Development Conference 2017 and the ITU principle governing body, the quadrennial Plenipotentiary Conference, the next one of which is scheduled for the last quarter in 2018. 

For details on the new policy, check here​ .