ITU: Is it Still Thinking Globally and Acting Locally?

Founded in 1865, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) is arguably one of the exceptional global bodies based on partnerships between government and the private sector. While other similar world bodies comprise politicians and other bureaucrats, ITU membership boasts of telecommunication policy-makers and regulators, network operators, equipment manufacturers and hardware and software developers.

Anthony Mugeere examines its origins, role in developing infrastructure and what Africa should look forward to.

The ITU is by far living up to expectations in its mission to coordinate global telecommunications and services. Working in collaboration with governments and private sector enterprises, ITU has, through regular global and regional conferences, facilitated the establishment of best business practices for the deployment of, and maintenance of ICT infrastructure.

For Africa, ITU has worked closely with the regional bodies to support programmes aimed to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals. Following the completion of the study on the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) in January 2005 for instance, ITU convened a meeting of core partners active in ICT to explore ways of developing the use of ICT in the region. The Union was also a key player in the identification of core ICT indicators during the Botswana regional workshop in October 2004 and participated in the International Labour Organisation (ILO) sponsored meeting on poverty reduction in Burkina-Faso. This was in addition to the institutional support to the NEPAD Secretariat by providing experts to compile a list of all known terrestrial telecommunications infrastructure development initiatives and projects and advocacy through seminars and workshops.

The role of the ITU-Development sector

The most notable undertakings in supporting infrastructural development have been through the Telecommunication Development (ITU-D), one of its three sectors that specialises in designing programmes to improve telecommunications infrastructure. Like the Radio communication (ITU-R) and Telecommunication Standardization (ITU-T) sectors ...