TDAG moves full steam ahead on its agenda
Final report of the 20th TDAG meeting, 2015
The Telecommunication Development Advisory Group (TDAG) held its 20th meeting at the ITU headquarters in Geneva from 28 to 30 April 2015. TDAG’s mandate ranges from reviewing priorities, strategies, operations and financial matters of the Telecommunication Development Sector (ITU-D) to advising the Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) on the implementation of Action Plans from world telecommunication development conferences (WTDCs).
This year, TDAG had a very full agenda mainly because it was meeting for the first time since the 19th ITU Plenipotentiary Conference (PP-14) took place in Busan, Republic of Korea, from 20 October to 7 November 2014. TDAG, among other things:
- reviewed PP-14 outcomes and resolutions and their implications for the work of ITU-D;
- reviewed the implementation of the ITU-D Strategic Plan and Operational Plan for 2014, including WTDC-14 resolutions and regional initiatives;
- considered the draft Operational Plan for 2016-2019;
- addressed ITU-D study group-related matters and ITU-D’s contribution to the implementation of the WSIS Plan of Action;
- heard reports on capacity-building initiatives, the upcoming Global Symposium for Regulators 2015, the World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Symposium 2014 (including an outlook on the 2015 event), emergency telecommunications, and Regional Development Forums;
- reviewed membership, partnership and innovation-related matters and the calendar of ITU-D events, planned for 2015-2018.
At its 19th meeting (29 September-1 October 2014), TDAG established two correspondence groups and an Inter-Sectoral Team on issues of mutual interest to ITU Sectors. One correspondence group is on WTDC Resolution 1 (Rev. Dubai, 2014), “Rules of procedure of the ITU Telecommunication Development Sector”. The other is on the Strategic Plan, Operational Plan and Declaration. These correspondence groups held their first physical meetings in Geneva on 27 April 2015 and reported their preliminary progress to TDAG, which also examined ITU-D’s collaboration with the other Sectors..