Report on “Friends of Senegal: CIIP Workshop Preparations” Session

Report | GFCE V-Meeting “Friends of Senegal: CIIP Workshop Preparations” | 14 May 2020

The invite-only GFCE V-Meeting session is part of a continuing process followingSenegal’s request for support to the GFCE members with the development of their CIIP Framework. During this session, the GFCE performed its clearing house function by matching GFCE members and forming a group of so-called “friends of Senegal” who can together follow up on the CIIP support request. The aim of this session was to discuss and agree on the way forward within this clearing house process. The session was chaired and moderated by Mr. Marc Henauer, Head of Switzerland’s MELANI Operation and Information Centre, and Lead of the GFCE Task Force on CIIP.

Mr. Marc Henauer opened the session by providing an update on the support request. In 2019, Senegal requested GFCE members/partners for support with their national CIIP Framework. A first meeting to further clarify and specify the request was organized during the GFCE Annual Meeting 2019 in Addis Ababa. Beginning 2020, conversations continued on how the GFCE members could best support Senegal with their expertise. It was agreed that the support will take the form of a multiple-day workshop, focusing on different elements of CII(P), for which GFCE members have the opportunity to provide expertise. The workshop was tentatively scheduled for the first week of June 2020 in Dakar, Senegal. Seen the current circumstances and travel restrictions worldwide due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a physical workshop was postponed. Therefore, the new way forward and virtual alternatives were agreed during this session.

Following this, Ms. Racky Seye Samb and Mr. Achime Ndiaye from Senegal elaborated on Senegal’s National Cybersecurity Strategy, goals and main challenges regarding CIIP. The main objective of a CIIP workshop organized in collaboration with GFCE members is to share experiences and best practices on CIIP. For Senegal, this workshop will be an opportunity to benefit from the experience sharing of experts from GFCE Working Group B and raise awareness of Senegalese stakeholders on CIIP.

Following Senegal’s useful overview and insights, a round of introductions and interactive discussion amongst the participants was held. Participating GFCE Members introduced the CIIP activities and expertise of their respective organizations and discussed their CIIP-related CCB activity (past and ongoing) within Senegal and/or the wider region. The participating GFCE Members spoke about the potential contributions to (virtual) workshop session each of them could make. A great amount of interest to contribute to and provide expertise for the workshop was received. Additionally, the GFCE received interest from the wider region in the expertise and support of GFCE members. Therefore, participants in the session also briefly discussed cooperation with the wider West-African region regarding regional CIIP.

It was agreed that the concretization and preparation of the virtual CIIP workshop sessions in 2020 will be covered during a follow up “Friends of Senegal” session in the coming months.