Asia-Pacific wants ITU digital plans in the Council report

The Digital Compact Has a Big Ambition. Asia-Pacific Wants the ITU’s Next Move in Writing.

Why it matters

An Asia-Pacific draft would put planned ITU work before the Council, while running Global Digital Compact commitments through an existing mandate and budget. The interesting word is “planned.”

Daniel Kade26 October 2026 at 06:42 UTCReading Time 2 minLast update: 26 October 2026

Asia-Pacific proposes putting planned ITU digital-cooperation work before the Council.

Summary

An Asia-Pacific proposal would add relevant Global Digital Compact objectives to an existing instruction that keeps ITU work aligned with WSIS, its mandate and its approved budget.
It would ask the Secretary-General’s annual Council report to include activities and engagements being planned, alongside work already under way.

A glossy summit pledge can cross three capitals before anyone finds the line item. Asia-Pacific’s proposed revision of ITU Resolution 140 puts that awkward moment on the agenda. The ITU register lists the addendum for November’s Plenipotentiary Conference in Doha. The members have a draft on their desks, not an adopted rule.

Two edits do the work. First, the proposal adds relevant Global Digital Compact objectives and commitments to the Secretary-General’s instruction to keep ITU activities aligned with the World Summit on the Information Society process. That instruction already says work must fit ITU’s mandate, established procedures, financial plan and biennial budget. The 2022 adopted text contains those brakes. Asia-Pacific wants the newer digital-cooperation agenda to pass through them too.

Second, the annual report to the Council would cover actions and engagements the Union is planning as well as those it is undertaking. The draft adds timely disclosure language. That sounds like paperwork until a new project seeks staff time, a partner or a budget line. A Council member can ask what the ITU intends to do under WSIS Action Line C2 on infrastructure, C4 on capacity, C5 on security or C6 on the enabling environment while there is still a plan to examine.

The draft also moves a reference to the next UN General Assembly review of WSIS outcomes to 2035. That date is a calendar marker, not a ten-year permission slip. The near-term test is more prosaic: if Doha adopts the amendment, does the next annual Council report show proposed engagements with enough detail to separate an ITU task from a partner’s pledge, and a funded activity from a handsome verb?