Enhancing efficiency of language service delivery
An ICAO Policy on Publications was approved by the Council during its 206th session as a result of the increase in electronic distribution of ICAO publications. This policy addresses requests from States for unrestricted access to ICAO publications available on the ICAO-NET and seeks to preserve the revenues generated by the publications. Consequently, the ICAO Publications Regulations (Doc 7231) are being updated, and new administrative instructions are being prepared for implementation of the policy.
During its 207th Session, Council reviewed the overall structure of the preparatory work for the Assembly, and several decisions were taken to improve the overall process. Some of these decisions were related to the issuance of Assembly working papers, and their implementation had an impact on language services, requiring extensive planning as well as additional resources.
With regard to the 39th Session of the Assembly:
| • | Deadlines for publishing working papers from the Secretariat and States in all languages were met; |
| • | A record number of documents was handled; there was an approximate 20 per cent increase in translation demand for working papers compared to the previous Session of the Assembly; |
| • | LP continued to use the services of off-site translators during this Assembly, a practice first introduced during the previous Assembly to reduce costs to the Organization; |
| • | A new remote application was introduced, enabling translators to connect to ICAO as though they were working on site. This allowed the translators to access all the resources available at Headquarters, facilitating their work and communications; and |
| • | All staff interpreters were equipped with laptop computers giving them real-time access to databases and reference material. |
