AIDE MEMOIRE: CANDIDATURE OF MR. STEPHEN BEREAUX FOR DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL OF THE INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION UNION 202
The Commonwealth of the Bahamas proudly nominates Mr. Stephen Bereaux for the position of Deputy Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). This election will take place at the Plenipotentiary Conference 2026 (PP-26) in November 2026, in Doha, Qatar.
The Deputy Secretary-General is elected by member states to assist the Secretary General of ITU in the performance of her or his duties, to undertake such tasks as may be entrusted by the Secretary-General, and to perform the duties of the Secretary-General in her or his absence. The Secretary-General and the Directors of the Bureaus focus their efforts on addressing membership needs and pursuing the fulfilment of ITU’s mandate globally. The Bahamas advocates for a Deputy Secretary-General who is skilled and experienced in the day-to-day functions of organizational leadership, and whose primary focus is on ensuring that ITU functions efficiently and effectively, and as a cohesive organisation. This will ensure that ITU’s resources are available for delivery of ITU’s mandate and membership needs.
A focus on organizational excellence – If elected, Mr. Bereaux will focus on supporting the Secretary-General implement efficiency measures which will increase value for money in the services delivered to Member States and which will maximise resources that are applied to its mandate and the needs of its membership. He will promote and drive improvement of accountability, monitoring and evaluation, internal justice and other governance frameworks across ITU. He will advocate for a more diverse ITU, improving representation of underrepresented regions and groups within ITU’s staff, ensuring that ITU is staffed by top quality professionals that is reflective and understanding of all member states’ needs and realities.
A Collaborative Approach to Inter-Sectoral Coordination–Mr. Bereaux will enhance collaboration across ITU, to ensure that ITU’s federal entities work optimally with each other to achieve their shared mandate. Mr. Bereaux will work to ensure that ITU leverages its strengths as a single organization while continuing to work on its mandates as defined for each of the Sectors. Mr. Bereaux has the consensus building and collaborative skills needed to optimize the synergies between the Bureaus, while optimizing the quality of shared services provided by the General Secretariat.
A Stronger Regional Presence that includes the whole ITU–ITU’s Regional Presence represents a powerful mechanism that should be leveraged by, not only the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT)but the General Secretariat and all Bureaus, to bring ITU closer to its member states in all regions. ITU needs to reengineer itself to ensure that its human capital is placed where it can be most effective and accessible to the members. Through inter-sectoral coordination mechanisms, human resource transformation initiatives, data-based decision making, and targeted mobility policies, Mr. Bereaux will drive increased relevance of the regional offices to increase ITU’s presence globally.
An Advocate for Small-Island Developing States –ITU’s mandate is of critical importance to SIDS. Digital connectivity and services are critical lifelines for a country with no land borders, and SIDS face some of the highest per-capita costs of development of any category, including in relation to digital infrastructure and services. However, funding dedicated to SIDS for ICT development is inadequate to meet their special needs. The climate crisis has further increased the needs of SIDS in relation to digital development, particularly in the areas of disaster management and mitigation. If elected as ITU Deputy Secretary-General Mr. Bereaux would be the first ITU elected official from a Small Island Developing State and would be a strong advocate for the needs of SIDS.
Mr. Bereaux is the right candidate for this role. Since May 2024 he has served as the ITU’s Chief of Administration and Finance, responsible to the Secretary-General for the leadership of ITU’s Human and Financial Resources, ensuring cohesion, alignment and efficiency in allocation and use of ITU’s most critical resources. Prior to this, as ITU’s Interim Chief of Transformation from December 2023 to August 2024, he led development of ITU’s transformation roadmap for organizational excellence, driving collaborative process to identify organizational challenges, and formulate plans for enhancing ITU’s operational effectiveness. As Deputy to the Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) from March 2020 to November 2023, Mr. Bereaux was the key leadership partner of consecutive Directors of the BDT, holding responsibility for the day-to-day operational activities of the Bureau while the Director drove the mandate of ITU’s Development Sector. He led BDT’s strategic and operational planning, monitoring and evaluation, administration of BDT events, expert recruitment, and leadership of ITU’s regional presence. His work leading the Review of the ITU’s Regional Presence and implementing the recommendations coming out of that review has already delivered tangible improvements in performance and accountability in ITU’s regional and area offices.
Mr. Bereaux was responsible for leading the secretariat that planned and successfully executed the World Telecommunication Development Conference 2022,(WTDC-22)in Kigali, Rwanda, in spite of several delays from its original 2021 dates and ongoing issues due toCovid-19 and other geopolitical challenges. WTDC-22 was extraordinarily successful and attracted more than 1,300 participants physically.
Mr. Bereaux is also an experienced multisector regulator, and an accomplished organizational leader. Immediately before joining ITU, he was Chief Executive Officer of the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA), Bahamas which regulates the country’s ICT and Electricity sectors, advises the Government on policies relating to those sectors, and represents The Bahamas at international sector related organisations such as the ITU. Prior to this, he held senior positions at URCA and at the Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad and Tobago.
As an international representative of The Bahamas from 2014 to 2019, Mr. Bereaux led the country’s successful campaign for election to ITU Council at the 2018 Plenipotentiary Conference (PP-18). At that Conference, Mr. Bereaux also successfully chaired Committee 5 on Legal and Policy matters and was involved in brokering consensus between ITU delegates on several contentious issues at ITU conferences and meetings.