ICANN Strategic Plan for Fiscal Year 2026-2030
Kicking off the Strategic Planning Process for Fiscal Year 2026-2030
As the FY21-25 Strategic Plan comes to an end, planning for the new iteration of the strategic plan begins. A well-defined strategy is essential to effectively navigate challenges and capitalize on opportunities. Project Planning and development began in April 2023 and is anticipated to be completed May 2025.
Strategic Planning is not simply about setting goals, it is also about involving all relevant stakeholders in defining a roadmap that guides us towards our future. The Board Strategic Planning Committee (BSPC) leads the strategic planning process on behalf of the Board, and ICANN org works closely with the BSPC and the Board to support this work. The outcome of this process will be a new five-year strategic plan.
The Strategic Planning process will be done in four key phases:
Phase 1: Environmental Scan
Phase 2: Strategy Formulation
Phase 3: Tactics Formulation
Phase 4: Public Comment and Adoption
The first phase of the Strategic Planning Process will begin with an Environmental Scan exercise completed by the Board, Org, and the community. These sessions will be similar to the strategic outlook trend identification sessions with a focus on a further 5-year horizon.
The exercise will utilize techniques, such as PESTLE analysis, when conducting the external environmental scan. PESTLE allows participants to examine Political, Economic, Sociological, Technological, Legal and Environmental factors. During the exercise, participants will also examine the internal environment. When conducting the internal environmental scan, participants will be asked to identify internal strengths and weaknesses of the ICANN MSM and its ecosystem. The objective is to brainstorm ideas, find linkage between the internal environmental factors and external environmental factors, to reduce or avoid threats, take advantage of opportunities, leverage strengths, and remove weaknesses.
ICANN org also intends to consulate with other stakeholders, such as RSOs, RIRs, IETF, W3C, and ISOC in addition to external parties outside of the ICANN ecosystem. These consultations are considered as best practice when doing external environmental analysis. The consultations could be via targeted interviews.
Following the analysis of Environmental Scan, the Board will begin Strategy Formulation. In this phase, the Board will utilize the input provided during the Environmental Scan phase to leverage strategic objectives and goals for the next 5 years. This phase will allow us to identify where we want to go.
Once the ICANN Board has identified where we want to go, it is time to formulate how we will get there. During this phase the Board and the ICANN Exec team will work together to formulate tactics. These tactics will be used to assist in the development of future operational plans for the organization during Fiscal Year 2026 through 2030. This phase of the Strategic Planning will be an ongoing and developing process as the organization continues to identify and develop the best tactics to meet our strategic objectives.
Once the Strategic Objectives and Goals have been identified we move into the Action Planning phase. In the action planning phase, we plan for execution and allocate resources needed. This phase of strategic planning is where we start developing our yearly operational plan and budget.