The Centres of Excellence (CoE) programme was launched by ITU at the turn of the millennium, with the aim to support capacity development in the field of information and communication technologies (ICTs) by offering continuous education to ICT professionals and executives in the public and private spheres through face-to-face, online or blended learning.

The CoE initiative evolved over the years to become one of the ITU’s key training delivery mechanisms. With the support from multilateral and regional organizations, CoE networks have been established in a number of regions including Africa, the Americas, Arab States, Asia-Pacific, Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Europe. Under the umbrella of the ITU Academy, these regional networks were brought together into a single global network sharing expertise, resources and capacity-building know-how in telecommunications and ICT training/education.

In 2012, a new strategy was developed following a decision of the ITU membership through Resolution 73 of WTDC-10. Core elements of the strategy were the following:

• CoEs shall be selected for a defined period of time aligned to the planning cycles of the WTDCs.
• CoEs shall be selected on the basis of their excellence in defined priority areas.
• There is a need to maintain a manageable number of CoEs to ensure quality of the training and facilitate monitoring.
• CoEs need to operate on a self-sustainable basis.