ECOWAS Programme on the Promotion of Digital Skills and Digital Entrepreneurship for Youth

The legal framework as provided by ECOWAS to regulate electronic transactions

Elsewhere, India is aiming to export its “India Stack” to African countries as a template for building digital public infrastructure.

Most important ap

The majority (53%) of youth believe that Western style democracy is not necessarily suitable for the African context, and contend that African countries will need to find their own democratic systems and structures that work for the continent and its people.

In Africa, attacks on critical infrastructure are becoming frequent. Banks are particularly common targets, losing billions of dollars to theft and service disruption. The National Security Agency of Nigeria and the municipal government of Johannesburg have each been victims of attacks that shut down services or leaked sensitive information. With cyberattacks against maritime infrastructure on the rise ranging from piracy to stealing database logs, experts worry that Africa’s ports and shipping industries could suffer an attack causing major disruptions in trade and commerce.

Fewer than half of all countries with national cybersecurity strategies possessed either threat assessments (which help justify the strategy’s existence and tailor the response to the threat) or resource allocations (which are necessary to ensure a strategy’s implementation).

At the regional level, there is no dearth of initiatives that aim to address the continent’s growing cyber-related threats and challenges. Beginning in 2019, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission, in partnership with the European Union (EU), initiated the West African Response on Cybersecurity and Fight against Cybercrime (OCWAR-C) and adopted a Regional Cybersecurity and Cybercrime Strategy. The African Union Mechanism for Police Cooperation (AFRIPOL) created a Cybercrime Strategy 2020-2024 that seeks to enhance coordination, develop specialized police capacities, and harmonize legal and regulatory frameworks. Meanwhile, the African Union (AU) is working to craft and implement its own continental cybersecurity strategy through its recently established Cyber Security Experts Group. Through the formation of the Africa Cyber Experts (ACE) Community, the AU is partnering with the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise (GFCE) to support cyber capacity building.

Middle East & North Africa

A number of interviewees mentioned that Germany had taken a very strong leadership position, particularly in promoting a specific vision of cooperation around data. Some saw France as an equally important player, and as a leader on connectivity/infrastructure. It was noted by several that the two large states are undoubtedly the motor of the EU’s D4D agenda, along with the European Commission. Belgium’s role in pushing the D4D agenda forward when current Prime Minister Alexander de Croo was simultaneously Minister for Development Cooperation and the Digital Agenda was noted, together with the continued motivation that Belgium displays with regard to this agenda. It is leading the coordination of the EU-AU D4D Hub. Estonia’s motivation and outsize role on e-governance was also widely commented. Luxembourg was similarly mentioned as having a strong motivation and particular added value on cyber-security.

“In the case of locally generated data and more importantly data sets, then it is considered that this data is treated as data residing in Nigeria under Nigeria’s jurisdictions and covered by data protection laws or regulations in the case of the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR), which is referenced by global tech companies, insurance companies, financial institutes and health organisations and other data mining companies on how they should use data originating from Nigeria.

A study by the Atlantic Council, a U.S.-based think tank, found that Huawei has developed 30% of the 3G network and 70% of the 4G network in Africa.

Beijing’s predictable opposition is why Washington does not prioritize the G-20 as a forum for meaningful debates around data flows and digital trade.

China used government and private-sector information and communications technology (ICT) projects to build support among African countries for New IP.

Insurtech refers to digital and technology-driven products that cover individuals and businesses against financial loss, from life insurance to car insurance and crop insurance for farmers. African insurtech startups are actively overcoming the historically low penetration rates of insurance products across the continent. According to McKinsey & Co., only 3% of Africa is insured -  by far the lowest coverage in the world. Excluding South Africa, Africa’s most insured market, this number drops to a staggering 1.12%. 

briterbridges.com

Huawei and Chinese phone maker ZTE have built nearly 80 percent of Africa’s third-generation (3G) network infrastructure, while Huawei has built 70 percent of all fourth-generation (4G) networks and is competing to build all the future 5G networks in Africa.

As a beginning, India has already signed MoUs/joint statements with six African countries on the subject — i.e., Morocco, Egypt, Seychelles, South Africa, Kenya, and Mauritius.

EMBASSIES,

Methodology for Benchmarking Assessment

As of 2019, there were 631 online marketplaces in Africa managing 1,900 websites in 58 countries and territories. These marketplaces recorded about 2.2 billion visits that year. Although these numbers may seem large, they are small by international standards. For example, Amazon.com had estimated traffic of 26.73 billion in 2019, while eBay.com had 10.47 billion and AliExpress.com had 6.66 billion.

Between 2000 and 2014, Chinese companies and State agencies committed to spending around US$4.8 billion in over 100 projects in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector in Africa, according to AidData, a project led by researchers at the College of William & Mary, Development Gateway, and Brigham Young University.

Each action

to align national digital strategies, regulations, and infrastructure with regional frameworks and initiatives, with the goal of improving national and shared regional outcomes.

lacked either leadership or a coordination mechanism (a key driver of intragovernmental coordination) and many said they experienced challenges related to stakeholder commitment and integration of common approaches.

itwasfoundthatfivecountries have strategies that are more than fiveyearsoldandareinimmediateneedofupdating.

Build Back Better World (b3w), is seen as a response to China’s Belt and Road Initiative. It was followed more recently by the eu’s Global Gateway infrastructure-for-Africa plan.

Yet some African regimes have made use of Chinese know-how to go after dissidents and journalists. The Wall Street Journal reported that in Zambia in 2019 the Cybercrime Crack Squad, a unit of the telecoms regulator, enlisted the help of Huawei to track down and arrest bloggers for an opposition news site. It also found that in Uganda in 2018 frustrated security officials had asked Huawei employees to help crack WhatsApp communications by the leader of an opposition movement. Huawei engineers penetrated a group chat, enabling Ugandan authorities to arrest the opposition figure and dozens of supporters and thwart plans for street demonstrations. (Huawei has denied that its employees conduct any such hacking).

a Chinese initiative to deliver satellite tv to “10,000 villages” in Africa.

StarTimes, a Chinese satellite firm, is strong in digital television. Its public profile in Africa is as a tv provider, serving 13m subscribers in half of Africa’s 54 countries (plus 27m more customers across the continent who get content over the internet). Less visibly, it is helping 15 African countries migrate from analogue to digital transmission, according to a tally by Dani Madrid-Morales of the University of Sheffield.

China brings officials from African countries to seminars on “cyberspace management”. At one such event in 2017 Freedom House, a non-profit group based in Washington, dc, found that attendees were given a tour of systems for “public-opinion management”, including “real-time monitoring of negative public opinion” and tools to guide public opinion to be more positive.

Total electricity use for more than a billion people, covering all 48 sub-Saharan African countries except South Africa, is less than that used by Spain (home to just 47m)

AU Agenda 2063

Less than 10 countries have established the office of the national data commissioner, a critical office under the Malabo Convention.

Africa is diverse and each state has its context,

The continent should be interested in issues related to Cyber Diplomacy because cyberspace like any global environment is only as strong as its weakest link, and Africa must NOT be the weak link.

Number of internet users and world trade by sector

The anger that China directed against ASPI was based on the detailed work of the cyber centre and the facts it revealed about Chinese policy and behaviour:

Data centres are taking root in Africa

In May 2020, China Mobile, together with seven other partners, announced the creation of the 37,000 km “2Africa” cable to connect Africa with the Middle East. The cable is to surround the African continent, with landings in 16 countries, and will underpin the growth of 5G and broadband access for hundreds of millions of people. This arc of communications is an important emerging component in China’s strategy in Africa, as it links up with emerging telecoms, tied to data centers, especially for the Horn of Africa.

African countries received little support from Western governments for technology infrastructure. While the donors spoke about the importance of internet access in development, they were less prepared to provide aid for digital infrastructure, according to Nairobi-based Gagliardone.

Table 1: Technology business ecosystem, referencing a simplified Open Systems Interconnection model

Chinese telecommunications provider Huawei has constructed up to 70 per cent of Africa’s 4G base stations.

Huawei has begun to establish regional training centers in African countries such as Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, Tunisia, Angola and Guinea. By August 2004, Huawei had invested more than $10 million dollars into its Nigerian training center. Recently, Huawei opened a new training facility in South Africa, its fifth training center on the continent. There is a sixth center currently being built in Angola. The company now provides training for up to 2,000 people annually. Such local investments by Huawei help bolster the local economy with job creation and localized management while improving the company’s image in the eyes of local consumers, businesses and potential partners.

Nowhere is Huawei’s presence and strategy more evident than in Africa, a continent it entered for the first time in 1998,

Huawei segments the telecom equipment industry into three major categories: Internet switches, fixed line networks and wireless networks. “Huawei is currently the number three global company in wireless networks and number two in fixed line and switches,”

Sub-Saharan Africa

While political interest from ou

eight African countries have ratified the Malabo Convention,4 the regional-led approach for data protection and cybercrime law.

Institutions charged with regulating data governance have not evolved with the dynamic needs and peculiarities of the digital space.

power and knowledge asymmetry between platform firms and mostly small and resource-constrained African countries.

Notably, the data governance framework tends to show more emphasis on fostering safeguards (e.g., data protection, privacy), and less focus on enablers (e.g., data portability, localization)—but both efforts are crucial.

100Developing an effective data governance framework to deliver African digital potentials

data, the World Bank’s World Development Report 2021: Data for Better Lives5

Developing and managing secure digital solutions requires extensive knowledge across issues like data privacy and security, interoperability standards, franchise management, biometric tokenization, device security, and more.

ensuring the digitAl economy is An inclusive economy

Climate change’s economic implications raise essential questions about how African countries might strengthen their economies in an age dominated by technology. By expanding access to digital technologies, African nations will empower the poor with access to information, job opportunities, and services that will improve their lives.15With a growing youth population and an ever-expanding workforce, investments in technology and technological infrastructure lay the foundations for economic growth. Such investments and developments could improve access to inclusive financing, modernize the agricultural sector, and improve healthcare systems. Technology poses new opportunities and possibilities for women’s inclusion and advancement. For example, in the agricultural sector, African women are utilizing technology and technological innovations to improve agricultural processes and, in turn, improve livelihoods.16 Women and girls cannot and should not be left behind. (See the viewpoint on page 56 for boosting opportunities for women and girls in STEM.)

We cannot forget that 578 million people in Africa still lack energy access—cutting them off from educational opportunities and the entire digital economy

Africa

establishing a data privacy act and a national cybersecurity plan

the Smart Africa Alliance

Governments should protect intellectual property (IP) rights to stimulate the generation of new innovations and technologies.

Currently, South America and Africa combined are responsible for less than 5 percent of the total global R&D spent, despite having more than 20 percent of the world’s population. Indeed, Africa itself falls short of the 1.7 percent R&D global average, with many African countries only investing 0.42 percent of their total GDP.

The literacy of Africa’s workforce should be increased in a range of soft and hard skills to be flexible and dynamic: Public and private institutions should partner with universities to develop effective continuing and executive education programs. Digital literacy skills can be enhanced by the development of future-ready curricula that creates a culture that encourages lifelong learning. African states should also create or accelerate the development of engineering and business schools, as well as technical vocational colleges to support industrial growth and create models of training based on the changing needs of the private sector.

Digitalisation: Digitalisation involves the integration of digital tech-nologies in society, government and business. Digitalisation comprises a wide range of digital applications, such as new communication technologies, robotics, cloud computing, big data analytics, artificial intelligence, the internet of things and 3D printing. It also permeates other areas of our day-to-day lives, in some cases fundamentally altering them

Switzerland has a great deal of credibility in sub-Saharan Africa. It was never a colonial power, and its neutrality and humanitarian tradition are valued and anchored in the region’s consciousness. Switzerland intends to seize more opportunities and work with the region as a partner to help it tackle the challenges it faces. It is therefore compiling a strategy for cooperation with Africa.

Digitalisation

As a trade-oriented, medium-sized economy, Switzerland is reliant on the open markets, legal certainty and predictability of a rules-based global economic system.

Tech4Good:

Stepping up exchanges between African tech hubs and International Geneva, especially on the involvement of African actors (governments, private sector, the scien-tific community, civil society) in the field of international digital governance

Switzerland fosters the potential of a new generationof university graduates who have been educated abroad

the lion economies

With a view to strengthening the position of International Geneva as a global centre for digital governance and other issues of the future, the Federal Council seeks to encourage the participation of business, the scientific community and other non-governmental actors in relevant international forums. African stakeholders in particular should increasingly be able to participate in discussions on digital governance. There is potential in intensified exchanges between emerging African tech-hubs and Inter-national Geneva. Capacity-building is an important means of providing support. Collaboration with multilateral organ-isations such as the AU and the IOF presents opportunities for comprehensive approaches. The potential of the Geneva Internet Platform (GIP)31 set up by Switzerland in 2014, should also be harnessed.

o create innovative and inclusive financial services for African societies

to minimise cyber risks, particularly with regard to data management, cybercrime, cyberattacks and cyber espionage, the financing of terrorism, surveillance as well as disinformation.

potentially exacerbating inequality and dependency, for example in relation to jobs or the use of data. This is why digital self-determination should be paramount in the application of technology.

Firstly, it involves the use of digital tools in international cooperation projects and programmes to achieve devel-opment goals more effectively and quickly. Digital applications drive development-related and humanitarian innovations worldwide. Switzerland’s commitment to harnessing the full potential of new technologies in combating poverty is summarised under the term Tech4Good.

a migration perspective. Many new opportunities are also emerging for Africa. Secondly, Switzerland has well-established ties with sub-Saharan Africa in view of its geographical proximity, cultural richness and economic potential.

Acknowledgements

his year’s High-Level Meeting on the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action takes on even greater significance with the recent establishment of the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent and the convening of the first Africa-CARICOM Summit a few weeks ago.

The political and security landscape in Africa is on a path of adversity.

Evidently,science can serve humanity only if good faith and rationality guides politics.Unfortunately, Africa,with negligible vaccination rate is left waitingfor the drips from the surplus of othersdue to vaccine nationalism.

Africadeserves peace, prosperity and stability!

Italy intends to continue to ensure its support forthe African continent, which is increasingly central forsecurity andeconomic growthglobally.We must increase investment, to enableAfrica’s youthto participate fully in its social, economic and political development

We supported the decision by the International Monetary Fund to issue new Special Drawing Rights for a total of $650 billion.Of these resources, $33 billion are destined toAfrican countries,and we are working to further increase this share.We have accelerated the refinancing of 'IDA-20', the World Bank's fund for the poorest countries.The Italian Presidency intends to facilitate comprehensive and sustainable debt restructuring in countries with excessive debt levels

n today’s globalized world, it is indefensible and incomprehensible that decisions which bind us all are left in the hands of few Member States. Reform of the Security Council, which takes into account the aspirations of Africa, as espoused in the Ezulwini Consensus and the Sirte Declaration cannot be postponed any longer. Transparency, inclusivity and democracy must inform the work ofthe entire United Nations System.

ndeed, this greatest challenge of our time which has a pronounced severe negative impact on African least developed countries manifested through droughts, excessive rainfall, desertification, hurricanes, land degradation and soforth thus diminishing our capability to eradicate poverty and improve livelihoods.

There is a glaringinequity in vaccine distribution. Some countries have vaccinated their populations, and are on the path to recovery. For others, the lack of vaccines and weak health systems pose a serious problem. In Africa, fewerthan 1 in20 people arefully vaccinated. In Europe, one intwo arefully vaccinated.This inequity is clearly unfair

I would like to highlight that Spain has a new policy for Africa, a continentwithimmensepotential.Wewishto supportAfricansintheirownsearchforprosperityand progress,andarefirmlyconvincedthatAfrica’s progresswill alsobe ourown

Furthermore, we are going to earmark 7.5 million doses of vaccines forSub-SaharanAfrica, and for the EuropeanUnion’s Southern Neighborhood.

in the acknowledgement of the wide recognition and broad support by member states for the legitimate aspiration of africa to play its rightful role on the global stage as asserted in the african common position articulated in the erzowini consensus and sad declaration redressing this historical injustice against africa is an urgent priority africa demands no less than two permanent seats with all the rights and prerogatives of permanent members including the rights of veto if retained and two additional assists in the non-permanent category of the security council