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A copy of the 2012-2015 Stategic Plan Draft Statement can be downloaded here. 

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ALAC Statement on the

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 Community Input on Draft 2012-2015 Strategic Plan

Executive Summary

The ALAC has seen an improvement in the formulation of the plan over the prior years, and is pleased about the early involvement of all of ICANN’s communities including our At-Large Structures and Regional At-Large Organizations in the overall planning process. It is therefore generally supportive in general of the new timetable and the new format. That said, it also believes that some improvements are still possible.

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ICANN’s strategic plan for 2012-15 seems to have taken an incremental approach by making revisions to its prior iteration, but net changes are clearly disproportionate to the magnitude of emerging trends.

Macro Level: Comments on the Strategic Planning Approach

A strategic plan is a vital document for any organization as it articulates how it “sees the future” in the, often dynamically evolving, context it operates in. The plan recognizes both the environmental trends and the organizational capabilities required to fulfill its mission. In essence, the plan should be the blueprint for an organization’s efforts towards achieving its desired goals. The plan is used for communicating the organizational intent to its stakeholders, while serving as a guideline internally as a framework for requisite efforts. 

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As the plan document is silent in terms of the scope of the identified strategic initiatives, the relative priorities, timeline and the resource requirements it is difficult to understand how ICANN intends to align the operating and the annual budget to the stated intent. As accountability and transparency is a greater goal ICANN endeavors to achieve, this and this intent alone requires the strategic planning exercise to be further enhanced to develop such a linkage. Such an effort is not only required for the external communication but also is vital for providing a direction to its various constituents and internal resources. With this in mind, the ALAC has noted that previous versions of ICANN's Strategic Plan have unfortunately been poorly implemented, especially in fields related to public participation, outreach and protection.

Granular Level: Comments on the Plan Content

With regard the to the content of the draft plan, the ALAC urges ICANN to consider the following observations related to the each of strategic focus areas in planning its initiatives:

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Whilst the ALAC understands that ICANN is developing metrics with regards to globalization, outreach, specifically in developing economies, inclusiveness, diversity etc. it points out that a significant effort will need to be made to track the identified shortfalls and that corrective action should be taken.

Conclusion

The ALAC has noted that previous versions of ICANN's Strategic Plan have unfortunately been poorly implemented, especially in fields related to public participation, outreach and protection. Oftentimes, organizations run into troubled waters if they do not heed the emerging trends in the environment they operate in. Additionally, even organizations with sophisticated abilities to identify strategic goals and direction fail in execution as they ignore how best to optimize the resources and limitations they have in their operation. Our recommendations, above, are intended to avoid ICANN falling into these traps.

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