Historical Resolution Tracking Feature » Adoption of ICANN Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2021 – 2025
Important note: The explanatory text provided through this database (including the summary, implementation actions, identification of related resolutions, and additional information) is an interpretation or an explanation that has no official authority and does not represent the purpose behind the Board actions, nor does any explanations or interpretations modify or override the Resolutions themselves. Resolutions can only be modified through further act of the ICANN Board.
Adoption of ICANN Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2021 – 2025
Whereas, under the ICANN Bylaws Section 22.5(b), ICANN is obligated to develop a Five-Year Strategic Plan for the Fiscal Years 2021-2025, as the first Strategic Plan developed after the IANA Stewardship Transition.
Whereas, following community, Board, and ICANN organization inputs received between November 2017 and June 2018 on key trends anticipated to impact ICANN in the coming years, the Board conducted an analysis and found significant similarities across all the trend sessions, that naturally converged into five primary focus areas: security; governance; unique identifier systems; geopolitics; and financials.
Whereas, these trends were shared with the community leading into and during ICANN63 in Barcelona. Coming out of ICANN63 and following dialogue with and additional input from the community, the Board developed a draft of ICANN's strategic plan for fiscal years 2021-2025, to present for community consultation. This document included ICANN's mission, a vision of the future state of ICANN, and a set of strategic objectives and goals, along with desired outcomes and associated risks.
Whereas, a Draft Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2021-2025 was posted for public comment in accordance with the Bylaws on 20 December 2018.
Whereas, members of the ICANN Board and ICANN org held two public sessions at ICANN63 and ICANN64 with community members, to collectively establish the priorities and strategic direction of ICANN for fiscal years 2021-2025, and to ensure that the comments received were adequately understood and appropriately considered.
Whereas, the public comments received were considered to determine required revisions to the Draft Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2021-2025.
Whereas, in addition to the public comment process, ICANN org actively solicited community feedback and consultation with the ICANN Community by other means, including strategic outlook trend identification sessions with multiple stakeholder groups at ICANN61 and ICANN62, a webinar, blog posts, and regular updates on progress made towards the development of the next five-year strategic plan on its strategic planning web page.
Whereas, the Board formed a caucus group to lead the efforts towards the development of ICANN's next strategic plan, with the support of ICANN org. The Board Caucus Group on Strategic Planning played a central role in reviewing and analyzing the results of the trend work and their related opportunities, risks, and impacts on ICANN, and in articulating these into new strategic objectives and goals, and readying the plan for full-Board consideration.
Whereas, at each of its recent regularly scheduled workshops, the Board has discussed, and guided the Caucus Group and ICANN org on the development of this Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2021-2025.
Resolved (2019.06.23.09), the Board adopts the ICANN Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2021–2025.
Resolved (2019.06.23.10), the affordability of this Strategic Plan will be considered as part of the Five-Year Operating and Financial Plan currently under development. If any issues arise that impact the feasibility of the implementation of this Strategic Plan, the Board will direct further action at that time.
Resolved (2019.06.23.11), the Board directs that as part of the on-going annual planning cycle with the community, new trends or shifts in existing trends must be factored into the annual iteration of ICANN's plans as appropriate. To the extent that these reviews point to a need to significantly modify any of the Strategic Objectives within the FY21-25 Strategic Plan, the Board will direct the appropriate processes and actions at that time.
In accordance with Section 22.5 (b) of the ICANN Bylaws, the Board is to adopt a five-year strategic plan prior to the commencement of each five fiscal year period, with the first such period covering fiscal years 2021 through 2025 and publish it on the ICANN website. On 20 December 2018, a draft ICANN Strategic Plan for fiscal years 2021–2025 was posted for public comment.
The strategic plan that is being submitted to the Board for adoption is the result of a phased approach, which included four steps: trends identification, trend analysis, drafting of the strategic plan, and finalization of the strategic plan.
The strategic planning process was designed to ensure continuous participation of the ICANN community throughout the development of the plan. This included running strategic outlook trend identification sessions with stakeholder groups, information sharing via webinars, public sessions at ICANN meetings, and public comment opportunities to provide input on the development of the strategic plan.
Between November 2017 and June 2018, ICANN organization conducted 14 departmental and regional hub trend identification workshops within the organization and facilitated 11 sessions with the community and the Board, collecting more than 1,000 trend data inputs.
Between April 2018 and September 2018, the Board, and its caucus group tasked with overseeing the strategic planning process, reviewed and analyzed the results of the trend work and their related opportunities, risks, and impacts on ICANN, with the support of ICANN organization.
Between September 2018 and March 2019, in addition to the public comment period, ICANN actively solicited community feedback and consultation with ICANN Supporting Organizations, Advisory Committees, and other stakeholder groups on multiple occasions:
On 9 October 2018, a webinar was held, providing an overview of the strategic planning process, and presenting findings from the strategic outlook trend sessions and the subsequent analysis by the Board and ICANN org.
At ICANN63, during a high-interest public session in Barcelona, members of the Board and org engaged in discussions with the community on approaches to addressing strategic issues and areas for prioritization in the development of ICANN's next 5-year strategic plan.
At ICANN64, in Kobe, the community, the organization and the ICANN Board held another high interest open session on strategic planning, to ensure that the comments received were adequately understood and appropriately considered.
Between March and May 2019, all comments received in all manners were considered in finalizing the ICANN Strategic Plan for fiscal years 2021-2025. Where feasible and appropriate these inputs were incorporated into the ICANN Strategic Plan for fiscal years 2021-2025 proposed for adoption. Details of how each comment received was considered in the revised draft plan were posted on ICANN.org website.
The ICANN Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2021-2025 is a fundamental part of ICANN's governance, mandated by the organization's Bylaws. The ICANN Five-Year Strategic Plan is a core element of ICANN's threefold planning process cycle, along with a five-year operating and financial plan, and the annual operating plan and budget. The Strategic Plan sets a direction towards a desired future ("the vision") and lays out the critical outcomes and specific accomplishments identified as necessary to successfully serve ICANN's mission and fulfil the vision.
Fulfilment of the Strategic Plan will require significant resources and commitment from the ICANN Board, org and Community. Each part of the ICANN ecosystem has a valuable and important role in furthering the implementation of the Strategic Plan in their work across ICANN over the next five years. This collective vision, developed with significant community inputs will require collective effort to achieve.
This decision will have a fiscal impact on ICANN and the Community as is intended. This should have a positive impact on the security, stability and resiliency of the domain name system (DNS) with respect to any funding that is dedicated to those aspects of the DNS.
This resolution serves ICANN's mission in ensuring a secure and stable operation of the Internet's unique identifier systems. The ICANN Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2021-2025 builds upon ICANN's mission so that it may continue to effectively fulfil its aims and meet new and continuously evolving challenges and opportunities.
This resolution is in the public interest as the Strategic Plan will guide ICANN's activities and inform ICANN's operating plans and budgets to fulfil its mission in fiscal years 2021-2025. The Strategic Plan serves the public interest by articulating the path towards a new vision to be a champion of the single, open, and globally interoperable Internet. The Strategic Plan complies with ICANN's commitments and is guided by ICANN's core values.
This is an Organizational Administrative Function that has already been subject to public comment as noted above.