Report: Integrating Cyber Capacity to the Digital Development Agenda

Publish Date: 01/11/2021

Written by Melissa Hathaway and Francesca Spidalieri, this report wishes to identify pathways to bridge the development community to the cybersecurity capacity building community.

The report was commissioned by the GFCE and funded by the World Bank’s Digital Development Partnership (DDP), It is the result of significant contributions from across the broader digital development and cybersecurity communities, including national and international development agencies, international and non-governmental organizations, and government officials.

Some key findings of this report were highlighted during the GFCE Annual V-Meeting 2021:

There is still not a common definition of what capacity building actually entails.
Not many organisations see capacity building as the whole picture, involving institutional, governmental, legal, technical and operational capacity development.
In order to mainstream cyber security and digital resilience into the development thinking, there needs to be a reframing of the cyber security narrative including terms of digital resilience, safety, trust, sustainability and risk management.
Cyber security and digital resilience are still not considered strategic cross-cutting issues and critical components for digital development.
There is a need to invest in Digital Public Goods as universal tools that can be shared and applied globally.