Page 3 - GSR-25 Best Practice Guidelines

Global Symposium for Regulators 2025

Regulate with agility and foresight Invest in strategic capacity
Implement agile frameworks such as outcome-based or Go beyond technical upgrades. Secure sustained
principles-based regulation, and consider arrangements investment in the human and financial resources
such as tiered licensing and sunset clauses, where needed to maintain and expand new technological
appropriate, to enable adaptive regulatory responses as tools and methodologies as part of the core regulatory
technologies and markets evolve. Guide innovation rather operations. Build multidisciplinary teams, establish internal
than simply react to it by using data, strategic foresight, foresight and data analytics units, allocate resources and
horizon scanning and anticipatory frameworks – including streamline coordination across departments. Partner
scenarios, early-warning indicators and pre-agreed with stakeholders, including industry, academia and
triggers that enable timely action – to better identify thinktanks to support continuous learning and regulatory
emerging risks and opportunities. Leverage spectrum and intelligence. Use peer upskilling and joint consultations
space-based technologies as platforms for innovation. with regulators from more mature digital markets (staff
exchanges, joint hearings) to absorb learnings from
Collaborate to innovate regulatory and industry practices.

Expand stakeholder engagement beyond one-off Make decisions inclusive and evidence-based
consultations to continuous, problem-solving partnerships
with ministries, market actors, academia and civil society Strengthen regulatory capacity for evidence-based and
across sectors. Co-creating solutions allows for the risk-informed decision-making. Use new data sources and
diversity of different actors’ experiences to collectively platforms, AI analytics and stakeholder inputs to inform
inform optimal and adaptive solutions, builds legitimacy decision-making. Align rules with real-world conditions
and shared ownership, and improves compliance and through regulatory impact assessments that account for
implementation. Align policies and prevent conflicting potential distinct consequences for different stakeholders
rules by embedding intersectoral coherence mechanisms. (including distinct providers and consumers and especially
from underserved groups and local innovators), staged
II ADAPT AND ENHANCE implementation, and recurring evaluation for iterative
evolution of regulatory measures.
REGULATORY CAPACITY
Institutionalize collaboration
Empower regulators for digital realities Enable regulators to coordinate across sectors and

We encourage policymakers to ensure regulatory jurisdictions using joint task forces, shared regulatory labs
mandates reflect convergence across infrastructure, and inter-agency working groups, among others. Consider
content and services. This may require oversight of digital ITU’s collaborative governance approach – structured,
platforms, data governance or AI, as well as cross-sector transparent decision-making with defined roles, shared
coordination to reduce fragmentation and reinforce public evidence, time-bound workplans and joint accountability
interest outcomes. This also calls for political, operational across public, private and civil society partners – to
and financial independence to enable long-term planning, design coordinated and adaptive responses to complex
impartial decisions and consistent enforcement beyond ecosystem challenges. A ‘whole-of-government’ approach
political or market cycles. is increasingly essential to ensure coherence in national
digital policy and effective governance of complex digital
ecosystems, recognising the complementary and distinct
role of regulators vis-à-vis governments.

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | 31 August - 3 September 2025 3 www.itu.int/gsr25