Multistakeholder approach in national processes --- Ioniarimalala, thanks for sharing this guide by the GPD. It has become an important part of the knowledge repository of the GFCE on developing national strategies.

Many countries still stick to 'formal consultations' only, ie allowing for a window of opportunity (commonly 1-3 weeks) of open consultations on a almost-ready draft of the national strategy; if they receive any inputs at all (and often not, because they don't even inform the community widely about the consultations), those inputs are not seriously taken into consideration. This leads to a document which was entirely produced by the government, yet whose implementation inevitably relies on other stakeholders - which were not involved and don't feel the ownership of the process. Result: document remains collecting dust on a shelf and never gets implemented.

It is important to make national policy-makers aware of the roles and responsibilities of other sectors in national cybersecurity, and nudge them to involve stakeholders from the early stage of strategic planning. This requires longer process and more resources - but if a trusted multistakeholder community is built beforehand on the national level, such strategy can result with might higher chances for implementation.

Source author: Vladimir Radunovic vladar@diplomacy.edu