3. Cybersecurity capacity building in the broader context in Africa

The African continent has been a target of malicious cyber activities in the past couple of years. Many countries have seen a significant rise in sabotaged public infrastructures, illicit financial flows, ransomware attacks or even national security breaches, such as espionage or intelligence theft, to mention a few.

The major drawback in Africa is the limited public awareness and knowledge about the potential risk that cyberspace brings. The problem is further complicated by the poorly developed digital infrastructure and limited institutional capacity to implement and develop cybersecurity laws and policies as a result of the lack of fully-equipped cybersecurity professionals. 

Scarce financial resources often limit readiness of countries in the Global South to invest into more robust cybersecurity infrastructure and measures. A recently published paper from the University of Oxford analyses what good risk-based approaches to national cybersecurity should aim at achieving, especially in resource-constrained environments and provides guidance on what to prioritise when investing in cybersecurity.  

Moreover, government officials also lack comprehension of the substantive interconnection between cyber and national security and what it implies.

Cybersecurity capacity building aims to explicitly address these shortcomings and close the cybersecurity skills gap that African countries need in order to adequately respond to cybersecurity risks. It aims to bridge the digital divide, build institutional knowledge, or address policy awareness limitations and skills shortages for cyber protection.

Members of the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise (GFCE) work together on several practical cyber capacity building initiatives. In 2017, a number of global good practices of GFCE members were mapped. They provide a rich set of experiences and knowledge. Collecting and sharing global good practices – in the form of a catalogue – ensures that other cyber capacity building initiatives can benefit from this experience and expertise in their own efforts.