Doreen Bogdan-Martin has started her four-year term as the Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) in charge of global communications, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Nigeria is a member of the ITU.

Bogdan-Martin assumed duty this week, as ITU’s 12th secretary-general, and the first woman to head the agency since its establishment in 1865.

ITU member states elected Bogdan-Martin and her new management team in September 2022 at ITU’s Plenipotentiary Conference (PP-22) in Romania.

The Plenipotentairy Conference is the supreme organ of the union. It is the decision-making body, which determines the direction of the union and its activities.

Before her election, Bogdan-Martin served as the director of ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau since 2019.

As ITU secretary-general, Bogdan-Martin said she aims to drive innovative solutions, maximise ITU’s relevance for its 193 member states, intensify global cooperation on connecting the unconnected, and strengthen the alignment of ITU’s programmes with the Sustainable Development Goals set out by the UN.

Also, Bogdan-Martin said her team would play a developmental role in dealing with significant challenges the world is facing, including addressing the needs of some 2.7 billion people with no access to the Internet.

“I believe we, the ITU and our members, have an opportunity to make a transformational contribution. Continuous innovation can and will be a key enabler to facilitate the resolution of many of these issues,” stressed Bogdan-Martin, who took over from ITU’s 11th secretary-general, Houlin Zhao.

Other members of the team include Zimbabwean national, Cosmas Zavazava, who is the new director of ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau, responsible for mobilising global efforts to connect the billions of people who today remain offline. Tomas Lamanauskas is the deputy secretary-general, a role that assists the secretary-general in managing the organisation.

The team also has Mario Maniewicz as director of ITU’s Radiocommunication Bureau, which oversees the ITU Radio Regulations, the international treaty on radio spectrum use, satellite radiofrequency coordination, and related technical standards.

There is also Seizo Onoe, who completes the team as the director of ITU’s Telecommunication dardisation Bureau, which is responsible for convening representatives from governments, private companies, and experts from around the world to develop internationally agreed technical standards.