Addressing Digital Transformation and Cybersecurity
Capacity Development workshop series focused on developing countries

The ODF continues in 2022! Visit www.igf-odf.org for more information about the upcoming workshops.

This capacity development workshop series, a joint initiative of the IGF Secretariat and Microsoft, aims to bring together diverse stakeholders - including government representatives, such as permanent missions in Geneva, NGOs, international and ‎intergovernmental organizations, academic and research communities, civil society overall, the private sector, technical communities, and other relevant actors - ‎to share best practices and build capacity in developing countries in relation to digital transformation and ‎cybersecurity. The participants will discover the prerequisites needed to ensure the ‎sustainability of best practices and the roles different actors can play in advancing national capacity on ‎digital transformation and cybersecurity.

In support of 

​

Driven by the call in the UN Decade of Action to partner for the Sustainable Development ‎Goals (SDG), the workshop will support stakeholders by focusing on themes covered in Goal 9: Build resilient infrastructure, promote sustainable industrialization and foster innovation and ‎Goal 16: Promote just, peaceful and inclusive societies.‎

Empowerment begins with ‎digital inclusion

The coronavirus pandemic has placed a special spotlight on digital development needs and ‎cybersecurity challenges universally with developing countries in particular facing a range of ‎severe difficulties‎. How can we bring to life the promise of digital technology ‎to countries often left behind? Part of the answer lies in recognizing that empowerment begins with ‎digital inclusion. The scope of inclusion ranges from rapid digital transformations and digital skilling to ‎data governance advancements and universal Internet connectivity, which are all critical for ‎developing countries to achieve the UN SDGs. In a recent study, it is ‎estimated that US$ 428 billion is needed to connect the remaining 3 billion people to the Internet by 2030. A ‎mix of policy, technological, financial, technical, and other interventions are needed to democratize ‎the promise of technology.

Digital inclusion requires trust in technologies

Technologies at the heart of digital transformation need to be secure, safe, and ‎trusted in order to truly integrate into societies around the world in a sustainable manner. In other ‎words, cybersecurity is key to digital transformation.
Discussions on cybersecurity concern all of us. However, some regions are often excluded from discussions and decision-making processes. In particular, ‎developing countries in the process of developing their ICT infrastructures can lack resources and ‎capabilities to address security and resilience issues. Furthermore, cybersecurity capacity is not only in ‎the interest of individual countries. In a globally connected world, where vulnerabilities in one country ‎create risks for others, building global capacities and confidence across the digital ecosystem is crucial ‎for sustainable digital transformation. Despite international organizations recognizing this need and ‎the existence of an increasing number of incentives, few lessons learned and best practices are shared ‎globally.‎

Workshop objective

These workshops will recommend adaptable best practices for a safe and secure digital ‎transformation for everyone as a means for social and economic development. Mindful not to duplicate any existing efforts, the workshops will rather build on them ‎by leveraging these diverse groups and their experiences to support sustainable digital transformation ‎needs.‎

Everyone can participate

The workshops are open to everyone to participate. Stakeholders from developing countries are particularly invited to join and share experiences from their communities. The workshops are headed by Anja Gengo (anja [dot] gengo [at] un [dot] org) and Daniel Akinmade Emejulu (daniel [dot] emejulu [at] microsoft [dot] com).

Visit https://www.igf-odf.org/ to learn more about the upcoming workshops!

Click here to contact the ODF focal points
 

The United Nations acknowledges the kind and generous support of Microsoft in developing and donating a website to support the workshops and contributing substantive inputs to the workshops’ programme development.