NEXT TO COME: ITU Forum on Conformance and Interoperability for the Arab and African regions, Tunis, Tunisia, 5 – 7 November 2012

Interoperability is a major reason for the need for standards and thus a core part of ITU’s mission to connect the world. "ITU Recommendations are truly global in nature and are developed through processes that fully respect the objectives of openness, transparency and non-discrimination, as recognized in international agreements."

The ITU is holding a series of regional Consultations and Forums on Conformance Assessment and Interoperability which will be open to members and non-members of ITU.

The Standardization and Development sectors of ITU are researching problems faced by developing countries concerning the conformity and interoperability of ICT equipment and services. ITU put in place the ITU Conformity and Interoperability (C&I) programme that, according to WTSA-08 Resolution 76, WTDC-10 Resolution 47 and Plenipotentiary PP-10 Resolution 177, of has four main pillars:

• Conformity Assessment
• Interoperability events
• Capacity building
• Creation of test centres in the Regions

The previous and future events organized by ITU take into account the views from all interested stakeholders: developing countriess, vendors, regulators, administrations, certification and accreditation bodies, international institutions such as ISO, IEC, ILAC, IAF, UNIDO among others.

A C&I Portal showing all the aspects of the ITU C&I Programme will be available soon as a one-stop-shop on C&I.

The events aim at discussing the following issues in order to better implement the ITU C&I Programme:

• Why Conformity and Interoperability? Conformity to standards as a first step to increase the probability of interoperability between products from different vendors.
• Developing Countries: Concerns and needs, benefits of Resolutions on C&I, conformity assessment,
• Capacity building on C&I
• Creation of test labs in the regions, accreditation and certification, recognition agreement issues.
• Lack of conformity and interoperability: Economic and technical impact on operating companies, service providers, regulators and civil society.
• Industry views: Testing and certification, mutual recognition arrangements and agreements, impact on costs and time to market.
• Certification and testing: Global best practices for conformity assessment, interoperability and certification procedures performed by leading organizations. The role of international organizations, regulators and accredited certifiers.
• Improving the implementation of the ITU C&I Programme
• New activities in the ITU-T Study Groups to include C&I issues in new standards.

The targeted audience are representatives of operating companies, service providers, vendors, manufacturers, regulators, administrations, organizations from developing countries and civil society, accreditation bodies and conformity assessment bodies.