On October 31-November 1, 2022, the Observer Research Foundation America, in partnership with the Department of International Relations and Cooperation of South Africa, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, and Research ICT Africa, held a roundtable in Pretoria, South Africa as part of its Global Cyber Policy Dialogues series. The two-day meeting, which built on discussions from the 2020 and 2021 virtual dialogue, focused on improving the security and stability of cyberspace, and promoting digital transformation and public-private partnerships in the region. The first day discussed implementing the United Nations normative framework, international cooperation to combat cybercrime, and resilience in cyberspace. The second day focused on ways to build meaningful public-private partnerships for cybersecurity and building cyber capacity for sustainable development. The dialogue brought together around 60 participants from across Southern Africa, representing government, civil society, academia, multilateral institutions, and the private sector.
The meeting was opened with remarks from Wopke Hoekstra, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands (recorded), Nozipho Mxakato-Diseko, Ambassador at Large of Peace and Security at the Department of International Relations and Cooperation of South Africa, and Nathalie Jaarsma, Ambassador-at-Large of Security Policy and Cyber at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.
The full agenda for the event is available here.
Several themes emerged in the discussion, including the lack of equitable access, jurisdictional issues, low cyber literacy, and the need for better laws and policies. The dialogue identified potential ways forward as well as possible future research and projects to address these challenges, including around implementing the UN normative framework, countering cybercrime, CERT cooperation, the need for public-private partnerships, and effective means of building capacities necessary to tackling all of these challenges.
This event was part of a larger Global Cyber Policy Dialogue Series being organized by ORF America and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands which seeks to convene regional dialogues to address key cyber challenges, strengthen multistakeholder networks, and increase coordination of regional capacity building initiatives. These meetings are intended to complement ongoing international-level cyber norms processes, such as the United Nations Open-ended Working Group (OEWG) and the Ad Hoc Committee on Cybercrime.