The UPU’s fourth Extraordinary Congress has today approved a suite of proposals to expand and formalize the United Nations specialized agency’s relationship with wider postal sector players, including private sector companies.
Proposals to enhance the organization’s engagement with wider postal sector players (WPSPs) – those operators and partners across the postal supply chain that fall outside the UPU’s network of government-designated postal operators – were directed at ensuring a truly interconnected, efficient and universal postal service for all.The decisions introduce changes in three principal areas.
First, they amend and better define the UPU’s institutional framework to encourage the participation of WPSPs in UPU discussions and decision-making processes through the organization’s Consultative Committee.
The decisions taken will also enable WPSPs’ eventual access to specific sets of UPU products and services to encourage seamless network interconnection and improve the global quality of postal services. Following the decision, the UPU will work to establish the operational, technical, legal and policy frameworks needed to facilitate the exchange of postal items between national postal operators and WPSPs. It will also push forward the development of a solution that will bring together the demand and supply of UPU-certified international postal transport services, as well as an interface allowing WPSPs to easily capture and generate postal data required to ship items through the UPU’s universal postal network.
Finally, the approval of these proposals provides a roadmap to ensure the organization’s continued modernization amidst rapid market changes and increasing competition.
The discussion on the ways and means the UPU should interface with WPSPs has been an ongoing one. Most recently, the 2021 Congress in Abidjan decided to extend the work of the UPU Task Force on Opening the UPU to WPSPs, at the same time agreeing to hold a fourth UPU Extraordinary Congress in order to take a decision on the matter.
More information on the proposals accepted today are available here.
Congress continues
The UPU’s fourth Extraordinary Congress is being held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, between 1 and 5 October. During the Congress, member countries will discuss and decide on proposals related to climate action in the postal sector, the future of postal financial services, and other urgent postal sector issues.
The Extraordinary Congress also provides a platform for the UPU’s Strategy Summit, which will convene ministers, heads of postal regulators and postal CEOs on 4 and 5 October to discuss “People, Progress and Purpose: The Next Chapter for the Postal Sector”.
The UPU will launch its 2023 “State of the Postal Sector” report and announce the results of its 2023 International Letter-Writing Competition for Young People on 5 October.