Cyber4Dev

Cyber Resilience for Development (Cyber4Dev) is an EU funded project of a duration of 42 months in a number of countries in Asia and Africa.  The project is delivered by NI-CO (Northern Ireland Cooperation Overseas) in partnership with government agencies from Estonia, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. The objective of Cyber4Dev is to increase the cyber resilience of Partner Countries while promoting an inclusive multi-stakeholder and rights based approach and ensuring compliance with the rule of law and good governance principles to allow citizens of developing countries the digital dividends of an open, free, secure and resilient cyberspace.

Aims and Expected Results

Cyber4Dev will aim to increase the security and resilience of critical information infrastructure and networks supporting the critical services of countries in Africa and Asia while ensuring compliance with human rights and the rule of law, through the adoption and implementation of a comprehensive set of policy, organizational, and technical measures.

In terms of tangible results, this should lead to the following:

• Countries will have increased political will to act on cybersecurity;
• Countries are supported to devise a new cybersecurity strategy or supported in starting implementing an existing strategy;
• Countries will have established democratic and inclusive multi-stakeholder governance structures for developing and implementing a cybersecurity strategy;
• Countries/regions will have stronger, more effective collaborative relationships on cybersecurity and incident handling;
• Countries/regions will have improved CSIRT capability and more effective collaborative relationships with the EU for information sharing and incident response;
• Countries will have improved coordination between authorities in charge of cybersecurity and cybercrime;
• Countries will have included measures to protect human rights, rule of law and vulnerable individuals within their cybersecurity strategies/policies/laws;
• EU trading partners will have improved cybersecurity and better conditions for growth;
• The EU is supported to counter cyber threats and foster the cyber resilience of the EU and its partners.

Relevance for other GFCE Members and Stakeholders

Cyber4dev is fully committed to seek synergies with other programmes and to avoid duplication of efforts. In particular Cyber4Dev seeks opportunities to share experience of the efficacy of approaches adopted and of capacity building efforts, and to ensure that learning is captured and shared to maximise benefit to the wider community.

Expected outcomes

• Strengthened cybersecurity policy, strategic and coordination frameworks
• Increased Cybersecurity Incident Response Capabilities
• Fostered Networks of Cyber Expertise and Cooperation

Participating Members & Partners

• United Kingdom: Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), UK
• Estonia: Estonian Information Systems Authority (RIA), EE
• Netherlands: Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), NL

And Northern Ireland Co-operation Overseas (NI-CO) Ltd.