Africa asks ITU to design impact tests before spending

Africa wants the ITU’s yardstick on the table before the budget

Why it matters

An African proposal asks the ITU to decide how a programme will prove its results while it is still being designed. The ruler is more useful before the cheque clears.

Daniel Kade25 October 2026 at 21:56 UTCReading Time 2 minLast update: 25 October 2026

The African proposal would put a baseline and impact test into ITU programme design.

Summary

African administrations propose adding impact evaluation at programme design to ITU Resolution 151, with a theory of change, baseline, indicators and a plan to assess longer-term results.
They also want annual operational plans to explain prior-period performance and material changes to targets, resources or risk. Annual review and cost reporting already exist under the 2022 resolution.

A budget can arrive with a pristine column for spending and a smudged one for results. African administrations have put a ruler across that second column in their draft revision of ITU Resolution 151. The proposal tells the Secretary-General and the three Bureau Directors to build impact evaluation into a programme when it is designed: state the intended chain of change, choose outcomes and indicators, record a baseline, then provide for a later look at longer-term impact. An evaluation invented after the work is done can always find a flattering starting line.

The 2022 resolution already ordered a results framework, linked strategic and financial plans, performance monitoring, detailed cost disclosure and an annual Council review of operational plans. The African filing’s extra demand is specific. Each annual plan would carry prior-period performance and explain any material shift in targets, resources or risk. Council and Sector Advisory Group reports would show relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability and impact so the next allocation has evidence on the desk.

The draft also asks for help building comparable monitoring and evaluation capacity among Member States and regional telecommunications organizations. Its own explanation says the aim is better use of outcomes, risk and lessons inside existing reporting, rather than a fresh reporting machine. That distinction matters: an extra form is easy to file; an honest account of why the target moved is harder.

The ITU register lists the African addendum for the November plenipotentiary conference. Delegates will decide whether to adopt it. If they do, the test will be visible in actual programme designs and annual plans: a baseline before the ribbon, a reason when the goalposts shift, and a result more concrete than “activities completed.”