The International Telecommunication Union (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 at it’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 the agency’s Secretary-General, Houlin Zhao.
“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.
ITU is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that is responsible for issues that concern information and communication technologies.
The agency coordinates the shared global use of the radio spectrum, promotes international cooperation in assigning satellite orbits, works to improve telecommunication infrastructure in the developing world, and assists in the development and coordination of worldwide technical standards.
It is also active in areas including broadband Internet, latest-generation wireless technologies, aeronautical and maritime navigation, radio astronomy, satellite-based meteorology, convergence in fixed-mobile phone, Internet access, data, voice, TV broadcasting, and next-generation networks.
The agency also organizes worldwide and regional exhibitions and forums, such as ITU TELECOM WORLD, bringing together representatives of government and the telecommunications and ICT industry to exchange ideas, knowledge and technology.
