Building a Fit4Purpose BDT

• During 2021 BDT increased its change management capability threefold – from 33 certified graduates of the Staff College 6-week change management programme to a total of 54. Several of the graduates presented their change initiatives, including a prototype for a centralized Standard Operating Procedures platform.
• A newly established Change Network mapped the different ways network members were applying new knowledge and skills in their work – in support of the “Fit4Purpose” BDT vision for change and 9 focus groups of network members interrogated evidence of progress.
• Their findings identified during the course of 2021:
  • increased collaboration between HQ and the Regional offices;
  • a mindset shift from focus on activities to impact;
  • strengthened focus on prioritizing Membership needs for digitization accelerated by COVID-19;
  • enhanced engagement with the UN System;
  • forging of new partnership modalities;
  • a more inclusive BDT team approach involving all staff;
  • a ramping up of communications across BDT and beyond with new tools, processes, and practices.
• At a September Change Network retreat open to all BDT staff, network members hosted a vibrant peer exchange of new learning from across BDT and an open session with provocative external speakers invited to present their analysis of new trends and trajectories in the rapidly evolving global telecoms sector. Change network members also established five new change initiatives out of the focus group findings. They prioritized strengthening the Results Based Management value proposition, cross-functional collaboration, business processes, communication/coordination, and performance management.
• A BDT Retreat was held from 3 to 5 November in a hybrid format.

• BDT has continued to strengthen project management practices across all ITU projects, through the organization of a broad range of activities aimed at reinforcing the governance of BDT projects, building capacity of BDT project managers, standardizing project management practices across BDT and reinforcing the monitoring and evaluation of projects.
• The overall portfolio of signed projects reached over CHF 18 million in 2021, which is the largest figure in the last 15 years.

• Highlights of the year:
  • Set up of the BDT Projects Board to assess and evaluate project proposals
  • Strengthening Project Management Practices, including the set-up of “Community of Practice of BDT Project Managers”, an online platform with 84 active staff members
  • Monitoring of ITU Projects to improve regular monitoring and reporting
  • Closure of projects to reduce the time required to close a project to a maximum of 9 months from the date of completion of all activities.

• 2021 has been a year of great progress with regard to strengthening the ITU Regional Presence, which while representative of all of ITU, is managed by and perhaps most closely tied to, the BDT. In 2019 ITU set in motion a reform process for the ITU Regional Presence, instructing the Secretary General to appoint an independent external management consultancy to perform a comprehensive programmatic, strategic and financial assessment and review of ITU’s Regional Presence. PwC was appointed to conduct the review and its final report was delivered and presented to ITU Council in 2020.
• As the Bureau responsible for ITU’s Regional Presence, BDT was responsible for managing PwC’s engagement, and undertook the task of coordinating an ITU wide review of the PwC report. In its report PwC made 15 high level recommendations and proposed more than 50 supporting actions, some of which include:
  • clarifying the role, mandate and expected contribution of the regional presence (including increasing the effectiveness of cross-sectoral coordination activities of the regional offices, and improving the alignment of the regional offices with ITU’s Strategic plan);
  • enhancing internal coordination mechanisms for the regional offices, including enhanced autonomy and accountability for regional and area offices through effective collaboration, communication, and delegations of authority between HQ and the regional offices;
  • enhancing performance through implementation of effective measurement and monitoring frameworks.
• ITU Council decided on implementation by the Secretariat of the majority of PwC’s recommendations.
• BDT has already embarked on a comprehensive action plan for the implementation of these recommendations. A dashboard has been established to provide continuous updates to ITU members on the status of implementation of the PwC recommendations.