Summary

  • Arab States propose a voluntary ITU self-assessment of national regulators' structures, skills, organization and resources to target training and technical support.
  • A participating state would control disclosure: the results would stay confidential and could not be published, compared or ranked without its express consent.

The person regulating a satellite-to-phone service may need expertise that did not exist when their office was built. Arab States have a proposal for the ITU: let regulators identify what their institution lacks, then send training and technical help where it can matter. Keep the report card out of the trophy cabinet.

Their 19 October addendum to contribution 91 asks November's Plenipotentiary Conference for a new resolution on national regulatory authorities. A self-assessment framework would cover institutional structure, emerging skills, organization and resources. Participation would be voluntary. Results supplied at a state's request and with its agreement would guide ITU assistance, training and cooperation. The proposal gives the state a firm handle on disclosure: no publication, cross-country comparison or ranking without express consent. It also bars treating the tool as a verdict on a country's regulatory decisions.

That privacy is part of the mechanism. A regulator with weak data, few specialists or an outdated remit has reason to ask for help. A public league table might give it reason to hide those gaps. The draft trades comparative visibility for candour, then tries to recover accountability through reports to the ITU Council on implementation and impact indicators. The Secretary-General and Telecommunication Development Bureau would design the tool; all three ITU sectors would coordinate support. Existing budgets and possible voluntary contributions would pay for the work.

The idea builds on material already in circulation. The ITU's 2026 Global Symposium for Regulators guidelines urge regulators to test, learn, review and adjust, and use a structured self-assessment to find strengths and gaps. The new contribution 91 record puts a political decision around that method: who sees a diagnosis, who may compare it, and who has to turn it into useful assistance. The November conference will decide whether to give that arrangement a mandate.

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