By: Nana
Appiah Acquaye
The Commonwealth of The
Bahamas has nominated Stephen Bereaux for election as Deputy Secretary-General
of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) at the organisation’s
Plenipotentiary Conference (PP-26), scheduled to take place in Doha, Qatar, in
November 2026.
Bereaux, an ICT regulation
and digital development specialist, announced his candidacy, saying it has
received the unanimous support of the Caribbean region through the CARICOM
group of Foreign Affairs Ministers and the region’s ICT ministers through the
Council of Ministers of the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU).
If elected, Bereaux would
become the first person from a Small Island Developing State (SIDS) to serve in
the elected leadership of the ITU.
He said his candidacy is
intended to bring a SIDS perspective to the global telecommunications and
digital development agenda, particularly in improving how international
institutions deliver support to smaller and more vulnerable member states.
Bereaux argued that smaller
administrations often face a significant gap between global digital priorities
and their ability to implement them, particularly where institutional support
is complex, slow or designed around the resources of larger governments.
Drawing on his experience
leading regulators in two Small Island Developing States and representing a
SIDS at ITU conferences, he said the experience has shaped his view of how the
ITU Secretariat should serve its 194 Member States.
He is advocating for more
practical and accessible assistance that can be implemented by administrations
with limited human and institutional resources, rather than approaches that
place greater emphasis on producing additional policy documents.
A central element of his
platform is strengthening the ITU’s regional and area offices by ensuring they
have the people, technical expertise and resources required to translate global
priorities into support tailored to the needs of individual member states.
Bereaux said a stronger
regional presence would make the ITU more inclusive and responsive while
enabling the organisation to better understand the circumstances of members
facing the greatest constraints.
He maintained that a
SIDS-focused approach would have wider benefits for the ITU membership, arguing
that solutions designed to work in the most constrained environments can
improve the effectiveness of the institution for all member states.
The election will take place
during PP-26 in Doha, where ITU member states will determine the organisation’s
elected leadership and other key positions for the next term.
