Over 80 participants from 47 countries and organizations all over the world came together in The Hague to discuss the progress on their cyber capacity building initiatives and decide about the way forward for the GFCE as a new international platform. 

The meeting proved to be an important networking event for senior management of countries, international organizations, companies and NGOs. 

Main outcomes of the meeting:

• Workshops on six ongoing GFCE initiatives
• Three pitches for new initiatives (critical information infrastructure protection, cybergreen and implementing reliable internet standards)
• Two new Members (IBM and Latvia) 
• Decision to establish an Advisory Board of GFCE Partners.

On Monday 7th of May, during the Africa Internet Summit, AfricaCERT hosted the first GFCE Triple-I Internet Infrastructure Security Day. Participants were sought across regional Internet stakeholder groups, including government, business and technical community.

The Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate as a Member of the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise coordinated this initiative to look for ways towards more trusted use of Internet and email in the African region. Participants in this workshop were regional Internet stakeholder groups, including government, business and technical community who all contributed in finding solutions to strengthen an open end-to-end Internet.

On Friday 25 September, during the RIPE NCC Regional Meeting in Kazakhstan, RIPE NCC hosted the GFCE Triple-I Internet Infrastructure Security Panel. The panel included experts from local and global Internet stakeholder groups and was dedicated to finding solutions to strengthen an open end-to-end Internet in the region.

The Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate as a Member of the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise coordinated this initiative to look for ways forward towards more trusted use of Internet and email in the region. The panel included experts from local and global Internet stakeholder groups and was dedicated to finding solutions to strengthen an open end-to-end Internet in the region. 

On Friday 12 October, preceding the India School on Internet Governance 2018 (INSIG2018), the Indian Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) hosted the GFCE Triple-I Internet Infrastructure Security Day. Participants were regional Internet stakeholder groups, including the government, business and technical community, who all contributed in finding solutions to strengthen an open end-to-end Internet.

From April 3rd- April 4th, the GFCE Working Group Meetings took place in the Hague. The GFCE Working Group Meetings were attended by 150 representatives from over 80 countries and organizations and strengthened the collaborative efforts on cyber capacity building between GFCE Members and Partners from all over the world.

The formal focus of the GFCE Working Group Meetings was to further strengthen an ecosystem for international cooperation on cyber capacity building and to bring the GFCE forward in 2019.

One of the main outcomes of the Working Group sessions was for the different GFCE Working Groups to agree on the work plans and expected deliverables for 2019, that will be presented during the GFCE Annual Meeting 2019 in October. 

Aside from the Working Group sessions, there was also room for networking, creative brainstorm opportunities and various announcements in the opening session. During the plenary session, Carmen Gonsalves, Dutch MFA and Andrew Dinsley, FCO, announced that the Netherlands and the United Kingdom will support the GFCE with 350.000 euros through the World Bank.

Another key theme of the Working Group Meetings was the interactive demo of the GFCE mapping tool. Over the past months, the GFCE Secretariat has been working on a mapping exercise to map capacity building activities of her Members. The tool is open to everyone and currently consists of two mapping topics: one on CCB Activities and another on the status of GFCE Members’ national cyber security strategies. The mapping tool is part of the wider GFCE effort to structure and present cyber expertise and will also be featured on the CCB Knowledge Portal that will be presented during the GFCE Annual Meeting in October 2019.

On Saturday 23 February, APRICOT hosted the GFCE Triple-I Internet Infrastructure Security Day. The Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate as a Member of the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise coordinated this initiative to look for ways forward towards more trusted use of Internet and email in the region. 

Participants in this workshop were global experts and regional Internet stakeholder groups, including the government, business and technical community who all contributed in finding solutions to strengthen an open end-to-end Internet. 

The GFCE Triple-I initiative facilitates awareness raising and capacity building events in different regions of the world in order to enhance justified trust in the use of Internet and/or email in those regions through multistakeholder cooperation. 

On Sunday 16 June, the African Internet Summit hosted the GFCE Triple-I Internet Infrastructure Security Day for the second year in a row. This workshop was supported by AfriNIC, AfricaCERT, AFNOG, WACREN, ICANN, Internet Society, and the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate. 

The aim of the workshop was to look for ways forward towards more trusted use of the Internet and email in the region. Participants in this workshop included global and regional experts, and regional Internet stakeholder groups, including the government, business and technical community, who all contributed in finding solutions to strengthen an open end-to-end Internet. 

The first in-person meeting since the start of the pandemic was hosted in The Hague on November 23-24 with selected participants from African countries. The event helped forge deeper relationships amongst participants and – in turn – strengthen the anticipated network founded on peer support and learning. Additionally, the GFCE and the AU liaised and connected participants with other relevant ongoing CCB programs in Africa.

The two-day Consultation Meeting provided a platform for GFCE Members and Partners not only to present updates on their projects and initiatives, but also represented a chance for the community to give its input on common objectives in the development of the GFCE ecosystem and engagements in the Pacific, Africa, Europe and Latin America and Caribbean regions.