The UPU Council of Administration end 2009 session
About 950 delegates attended the meeting of the governing body, whose 41 member countries discussed and approved the work and activities of the Universal Postal Union (UPU). Four committees and their respective groups dealt with governance issues, development and cooperation, finance and administration and the UPU strategy.
The UPU director general said the UPU Council of Administration (CA) plays a major role in preparing the organization’s future. “By integrating the new postal players in its reflections, as well as international trends and factors such as the current financial and economic crisis, the body will be able to draw up the future architecture of the UPU,” said Edouard Dayan to the plenary session.
Indeed, the CA agreed to discuss governance issues around innovative projects such as the top-level Internet domain dot.post. The UPU and ICANN successfully negotiated an agreement in principle recently. The body also examined different postal regulatory models and held discussions over how to effectively finance the universal postal service in a context of crisis and market liberalization during a one-day conference devoted to the issue. A two-day workshop on how the postal network can be used to extend financial inclusion to millions of people also drew interest and strong participation. Other highlights included the Council’s support for developing addressing.
The UPU is trying to raise awareness among key stakeholders – governments, regulators and UN and international organizations, among others – of the importance of addresses for providing effective public services and enabling citizens to fully participate in society.
The UPU will create a multi-agency working group on the issue and prepare an international summit on the issue in 2011. With world leaders set to meet in Copenhagen in December to hash out a new international deal on how to curb greenhouse gas emissions and finance initiatives to do so, the CA supported a proposal to create a project group to study the feasibility of setting up a financing mechanism to compensate carbon emissions by postal operators. Finally, the CA approved a proposal to formalize the relationship between the UPU and the International Organization for Migration. The UPU has been an IOM observer since 2006 and is working with the organization on a project to improve electronic money transfers through the post between Uganda and Tanzania. They want to extend the project to other countries.
Other projects to develop electronic money-transfer services in rural areas in Africa are being developed with the International Fund for Agricultural Development, a UN sister agency.
Charles Prescott, chairman of the Consultative Committee, qualified the integration and involvement of the UPU in the wider UN system as “a brilliant move”. He said: “With firmer UN roots and a global network of essential providers of cost-effective electronic messaging and money transfers, the worldwide postal system has a chance to thrive, with the UPU at the centre of development efforts.”
The Consultative Committee is the voice of stakeholders from the wider postal sector.
