that theyplayed an important role in catalysing political will within the government, and some said that they had provided them a meaningful opportunity to learn from their peers

Using the Digital Economy Blueprint as a reference, countries scored differently on measures of digital governance, infrastructure development, ICT skills, and innovation

aying the foundation for more regional integration and trade, and many were working on regional e-commerce and mobile interoperability.

as well as pursue global alignment

regional networks are one of the best forums for countries to find alignment on such objectives

required significant legal and regulatory work (and sometimes a high level of political risk), including e-government, digital identity, data privacy and protection, and cybersecurity.

By cooperating through such regional bodies, countries have begun to promote common understanding around the legal and policy frameworks for responsible and sustainable digital transformation.

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

to address the need for cross-functional capabilities rather than technical expertise on its own, governments expressed some movement toward whole-of-government processes in managing human and technical capacity, though this was in its early stages.

Several countries highlighted examples of expert panel discussions, short-term training, and peer learning sessions within or across countries that could provide opportunities for government employees to refresh ICT skills and learn about emerging technologies, including 5G, data analytics, cyber security, and distributed ledgers

Countries recognise that human capacity development and a human-centered transformation are key enablers of successful digital transformation.

sectoral silos continue to impede harmonisation of planning across government, and the downstream effects of this lack of coordination are particularly evident during emergencies like the recent pandemic

Closely related to the need for improving digital skills and values in rural areas was inclusion and access, which were often core themes of the infrastructure extension and connectivity issues mentioned by officials in their responses.

digital inclusion that countries were working on included e-payment, ICT for gender, financial inclusion, and ICT for disability.

Governments continue to be challenged by the need to invest in physical infrastructure, whether through internal or external sources

recognisesiloedinvestmentsandduplicativeefforts by ICT development partners as a problem, and they also recognise issues in coordination between ICT ministries and promoting a whole-of-government approach

ncluding sectoral planning, silos, and procurement,

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.

an aspiration or ongoing project rather than a fully executed reality.

hey were told that whole of government refers to coordination and resource-sharing across government ministries and agencies with the intent of achieving ICT policy/strategy objectives

Coordination and horizontal integration are important elements of digital government, so addressing these issues is critical in delivering a whole-of-government approach to ICT adoption and use, as well as promoting and investing in the digital economy

lack a timetable for actions and key performance indicators (KPIs),

itwasfoundthatfivecountries have strategies that are more than fiveyearsoldandareinimmediateneedofupdating.

Digital skills for public sector officialsallowforimproveddecision-makingaround digital strategy, and subsequently increase the potential for successfully navigating digital strategy implementation

Another positive sign is the proliferation of digital ID systems in almost all the countries, albeit at different stages of universal rollout. A good example is Kenya, with the deployment of its National Integrated Identity Management System, known as Huduma Namba

Unlocking the Digital Economy in Africa: Benchmarking the Digital Transformation Journey | 17FIGURE 5Indices Used for Benchmarking Assessment Using Secondary Data

harmonising national ICT strategies and regulatory frameworks becomes critical,

This divide is particularly acute in Africa, where increasing connectivity is transforming the continent and integrating people into the digital economy.

at the nexus of policy frameworks, digital platforms, and peer learning, with particular success in regional policy harmonisation and global alignment.

Developing human capacity entails promoting a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship across society, as well as upskilling and improving the capacity of the existing government workforce.

mproving fragmented digital governance by deploying coordinated ICT strategies and harmonized policy and regulatory frameworks

efforts to renew these strategies (with a focus on digital economy and whole-of-government coordination) are just beginning.

Most countries have ICT strategies or plans in place, though very few arespecifictocreatingadigitaleconomy.

countries need to collectively build ecosystems that facilitate digital integration—regionally and continentally

Digital Government, Digital Business, Infrastructure, Innovation-Driven Entrepreneurship, and Digital Values and Skills

the launch of the Digital Economy Blueprint by the Republic of Kenya,

Pioneered by the government of Kenya, the blueprint highlights fivepillarsasafoundationforcreatingadigital economy and underscores the need for countries to adopt user-centric and whole-of-government processes in promoting outcomes for the whole-of-society

Share of Economies With Relevant E-Commerce Legislation in Africa, by region, 2017 (%

to Agenda 2063

Leverage synergies with existing regional and international initiatives with shared goals

Establish national cyber-security governance structures under multi-stakeholder structures (involving policy makers,economic,educational, technical and business communities, legal, law enforcement, Academia, diplomatic, military ...etc.)

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVESTO DRIVE THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TO PROPEL INDUSTRIALIZATION IN AFRICA AND CONTRIBUTE TO THE DIGITAL ECONOMY AND SUPPORT AFCFTA

Africa has fewer legacy challengesto deal with and is therefore adopting digitized solutions faster out of necessity. For Africa, the current moment offers a leapfrogging opportunity. Today’s technologies indicate the scale and speed at which technology is transforming traditional socio-economic sectors.

Just 9% of Tanzanians surveyed in April for The Economist by Premise had watched China’s flagship news channel in the latest month. By comparison 73% had watched the bbc. Across the seven countries Premise surveyed, cgtn did best in Congo, where 28% of respondents had watched it in the latest month. But 73% had seen France24. (The survey skews slightly to wealthier and more urban than average, but the ages of respondents are representative).

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.

Last year People’s Daily Online, the website of China’s official mouthpiece, started a Swahili-language service.

Davos needs the world more than the world needs Davos. That isn’t to say there are no mutual benefits.

Attendance seemed down on previous years—by half or so, chief executives reckoned.

But investigators trying to detect sanctions-cheaters—for government agencies, pressure groups, or insurers and other businesses—are encountering a surge of help from an unexpected quarter.

But investigators trying to detect sanctions-cheaters—for government agencies, pressure groups, or insurers and other businesses—are encountering a surge of help from an unexpected quarter.

But investigators trying to detect sanctions-cheaters—for government agencies, pressure groups, or insurers and other businesses—are encountering a surge of help from an unexpected quarter.

“This is really interesting, because then you can interrogate any fiber under the sea, covering all of the Earth,”

Where there’s cable, there’s potential data.

Every 60 to 80 kilometers, usually, you need an optical amplifier, which essentially takes the incoming light and amplifies it,”

These very words may have flown through an undersea cable before reaching your eyeballs. Hundreds of thousands of miles of fiber optics crisscross the world’s oceans, shuttling emails, Netflix shows, and news articles as packets of light. And, scientifically speaking, boy does that light have a story to tell—not so much about what happens on land, but what happens in the deep.

Peace, security and human rights 2. Prosperity3. Sustainability4. Digitalisation

Combining bilateral and multilateral levels also strengthens the position of International Geneva.

The first World Data Forum was held in South Africa in 2017

Flourish chord diagrams

Equatorial Guinea

China is involved in financing, building or operating 61 ports in 30 African countries,

The original pretext for its base was to support anti-piracy missions in the Gulf of Aden.

“They have placed bets from Mauritania in the north to Namibia in the south and in many countries in-between,

a practical approach to making the country richer, mixing market reforms with state control.

African employees make up 70-95% of Chinese firms’ workforces, according to a recent summary of the evidence.

But turning to China was often the only option. The West should offer an alternative.

A less patronising Western approach would be well-timed.

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.

the Trump administration’s rigid approach of telling countries they must make a binary choice between America and China.

but also the sense of not being patronised

To seize it means resisting the temptation to see everything China does as part of a zero-sum game.

asked Africans in seven countries, a mix of democracies and authoritarian states, which would be more powerful in a decade’s time: China or America. In all seven the answer was China. Overwhelmingly they also felt that China’s influence was favourable, as well.

China prides itself on a “demand-driven” approach: doing what African leaders want, to hell with technocrats in finance ministries. In Congo the “deal of the century” signed with Joseph Kabila in 2007 swapped mining rights for infrastructure projects. In Ethiopia China helped Meles Zenawi’s push for industrialisation. In Kenya China supported Uhuru Kenyatta’s “Vision 2030”, notably via the standard-gauge railway (sgr), its largest infrastructure project since independence.

Attempts to exempt smaller firms from the most onerous rules are welcome.

to allow users to choose sanitised versions of websites

Over-blocking, arbitrary enforcement and the chilling of legitimate discussion is thus built into the legislation.

Anyone who spends time on social media knows that such content-moderation algorithms are already arbitrary and inconsistent, banning some people for trivialities while leaving others untouched for flagrant breaches of the rules

firms will have strong incentives to block anything even remotely controversial first and ask questions later—or, more likely, not at all.

to delegate enforcement to the same tech companies that the government says have failed to police themselves properly in the past.

to be known as “legal but harmful”

The government hopes to stamp down on, among other things, death threats, knife sales, assisting people to commit suicide, the glamourisation of anorexia, vaccine scepticism, fraudulent advertising and racist abuse directed at England’s football team.

the bar should be high, and the rules should be applied carefully, frugally and narrowly

The bill will require tens of thousands of internet firms, from foreign giants like Facebook and Google to niche web forums, to do more to protect their users, on pain of fines of 10% of their worldwide revenue, or even being blocked entirely.

Inefficient international institutions may collapse amid an accelerating arms race, nuclear proliferation and the multiplication of regional conflicts. Such change would lead only to more chaos in the years ahead.

That would lead to a reformation of the global order, with major changes to the UN system, archaic norms of international public law and recalibrations at the IMF, the WTO and other bodies.

If a deal with Mr Putin is possible, a deal with Xi Jinping would be a logical continuation.

the final outcome of the collision between the Russian and the Ukrainian models will be postponed.

Triumph for Ukraine might lead to a tamed and domesticated Russia. A quiet Russia would allow the West to cope more easily with China, which would be the only major obstacle to liberal hegemony and the long-awaited “end of history”.

it is about our understanding of modernity itself and, consequently, about our preferred models of social and political development.

two views on the modern international system and on the world at large; two opposing perceptions of what is right and what is wrong, what is fair and what is not, what is legitimate and what is illegitimate and of what national leadership should entail.

very different ways of organising social and political life

The other three goals are to make supply chains more resilient; to promote infrastructure investment and clean energy; and to form new rules on taxation and anti-corruption.

with high standards for workers’ rights and e-commerce rules.

Even if policymakers can ease the way for the likes of Mr Shevchik to come, America must still tackle an emerging talent gap with its principal geopolitical rival, China. China awards over 100,000 more advanced degrees every year than America does. America’s byzantine immigration system excels at kicking out foreign-born graduates. The place remains attractive to skilled foreigners—if only it will let them in.

Data Poisoning is an adversarial attack that tries to manipulate the training dataset in order to control the prediction behavior of a trained model such that the model will label malicious examples into a desired classes (e.g., labeling spam e-mails as safe).

“Accelerating digital transformation also requires cloud services that meet regulatory compliance and digital governance requirements,” Google wrote. “In particular, highly regulated sectors like government, healthcare and financial services need additional controls to store data and run workloads locally.”

Not because global solutions aren’t needed – they are an important part of the picture. But while many structural solutions to inequality do require global action, the radical changes needed on both the domestic and international fronts are not in the Davos wheelhouse because they threaten elite interests.

People, however, are no longer fooled by the Davos talk of equality, transparency, respect and diversity. They are well aware that those who benefitted and continue to benefit from the pandemic that left them struggling to put food on their table  – such as Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, who made an eye-watering $24.3m in 2021 and is attending Davos – are not interested in the systemic changes needed to tackle inequality.

Share of topics related to clima-te/energy issues in news coverage on investment funds 2015–2022

INCLUSION OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES LIKELY TO GET MORE RECOGNITION AT LAST

n May 2022 WHO have estimated that covid deaths have been under-reported and estimate there have been over 15 million deaths worldwide

I propose the below structure

here is need to create the African Union Senior Government Officials Group (AUSGOG) that will report to The Permanent Representatives Committee (PRC)

the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) can play an important role in assessing the cybersecurity readiness of African countriesand review their compliance with international standards,notably the national Cyber security governance, institutional and legal frameworks as a first step to identify the adequate assistance for each country and sub-region.

TheNews 24 (2019) reported a number of 21Internet shutdowns across Africa in 2018 against 13 in 2017 which unfortunately had economic implications in the region. For instance,CIPESA (2017) points out that Internet shutdowns have cost up to US$ 237 million in Sub-Saharan Africasince 2015.Moreover,Internet Shutdowns,restrictions and content blocking affect negatively the everyday life of African citizens as they rely on Internet to access knowledge and perform important activities,such as communicating with others

The Foreign Ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum (ARF)also engaged in developing CBMs and agreed in 2012 to develop “A work plan on security in the use of ICTs focused on practical cooperation on Confidence Building Measures”. The work plan was adopted in 2015 and put in place an Inter-SessionalSupport Group composed of Senior Officials and ARF Foreign Ministers to promote CBMsand Preventive Diplomacy through practical cooperationactionsamong states (ASEAN, 2015).

PSA and AGA Architectures can be used to address challenges posed by thedigital technologies advancements

still handled at the technical level

These two Architectures (APSA and AGA) did not include policy dialogues on cybersecurity, Internet policy or any other topic related to Digital policy as an emerging issue to enable the Continent to tackle the challenges of the digital era.

Accordingto Bedzigui (2018), we need to link the two AU instruments APSA and AGA to enhance AU response to instability within the Continent, since both architectures includePSC and most security crisis or conflicts are related to either instability in Africa, bad governance or non-respect of democratic rules and human rights

t is noticeable that existing mechanisms and programs donot include the threats and risks stemming from the use Information Communication Technologies (ICTs),as wellas the new possibilities that cyberspace offers to perpetrate transnational criminal and terrorist activities that may also disruptthe functioning of African nations.

Table 2

South Africa

In addition to undertaking cyber capacity building activities, so far a number of programs and legislative frameworks have been adopted by the Sub Regions notably: ECOWAS cybersecurity guidelines, ECCAS Model Law / CEMAC Directives on Cybersecurity(Data protection, e-transactions, cybercrime); SADC model law on data protection; SADC model law on e-transactions; SADC Model Law on Computer Crime and Cybercrimeand Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA);model Law on electronic transactions andModel Cybercrime Billadopted in 2011(Orji,2015).

the AU Commissiondeveloped Guidelines on Internet Infrastructure Security (ISOC, 2017) and Guidelines on Personnel Data Protection in Africa (ISOC, 2018) where explanations and guidance on domestication of the Malabo Convention provisions are given.

we can consider establishing IGFsin Africaas a successful model,especially in recent years with the increasing participation and involvementof government representatives.

Whilethe USA, Russia and China did not sign the declaration it is reported that four African countriesnamelyGabon, Morocco, Congo and Senegal have signed the declaration (Radunovic,2018)

Africaparticipation in the GCCs is limited to few countries such as Senegal, Kenya, Morroco and Tunisia which are members of the GFCE which generally nominatedelegates from the ministry of ICT to attend the conferences without internal coordination with other Ministries.

Thepace of ratification is very slow withonly four countries ratified (Senegal,Mauritius, Namibia and Guinea), this is due tolack of assistance and support from the African Unionto Member States, the lengthy processes within the countries,lack of awareness of decision makersand parliaments on the importance of cybersecurity and its relation to national security and prosperity.

Among the aforementioned African countries,four countries havealready ratified the Budapest Convention (Mauritius, Senegal, Moroccoand Cape Verde)

They emerge through open dialogue. Because conversations are the basis for any new solutions.

reinforcing a more focused form of multilateralism

renationalisation of system-critical resources, value chains and production processes. In other words, reduced dependencies and risks, and fewer suppliers.

polarisation, sharpened power politics, a trade cold war, eroding world rules, blocked exchanges and, as a consequence, widespread losses of prosperity.

a decoupling of economic areas with regionally closed cycles.

sectoral globalisation

When our democratic environment is threatened and values agreed under international law falter, Switzerland too is threatened.

to strengthening its own and common fundamental values.

There is no neutral attitude towards the brutal violation of fundamental values, which are also our values

First the financial crisis, then climate change, the pandemic and, on 24 February, Russia's attack on Ukraine.

Open world markets and technological progress generated prosperity for hundreds of millions and provided a boost for more democracy, freedom and stability.

He predicted the U.S.-E.U. data deal announced by Mr. Biden would be struck down again by the European Court of Justice because it still does not meet E.U. privacy standards.

Amazon Web Services, the largest cloud computing service, said it lets customers control where in Europe data is stored

Google Analytics, which is used by many websites to collect audience figures, were told this year not to use the program anymore because it could expose the personal data of Europeans to American spying.

If tech companies were required to store it all locally, they could not offer the same products and services around the world, they said.

drafted an executive order to give the government more power to block deals involving Americans’ personal data that put national security at risk,

In Kenya, draft rules require that information from payments systems and health services be primarily stored inside the country, according to the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation

Shifting attitudes toward digital information are “connected to a wider trend toward economic nationalism,”

The debate over restricting data echoes broader fractures in the global economy.

But users might lose access to some services or features depending on where they live.

And the movement of data has become part of geopolitical negotiations, including a new pact for sharing information across the Atlantic that was agreed to in principle in March.

an early draft of an executive order meant to stop rivals like China from accessing American data.

Driven by security and privacy concerns, as well as economic interests

Now the era of open borders for data is ending.

there are fewer and fewer places where all parties can come together.

“We risk that the world splits up into a multi-power system. We have different philosophies, ideologies; even inside countries we have a polarization which you haven’t experienced 10, 15 years ago.”

For a bunch of people, it’s just five days of making as much money as they can because they’re masters of the universe and they’re seeing other masters of the universe and they’re meeting every 30 minutes and getting deals done,”

the need for multinational collaboration was only growing more urgent.

having people and ideas and goods and services move faster and faster across borders, is what gets you a global middle class over the last 50 years

whether the war is an isolated conflict, or the beginning of a much broader realignment of world powers.

Mr. Schwab barred not only Russian government officials but also all Russian nationals from attending.

“One of W.E.F.’s big ideas has been that shared economic prosperity would bring the world more together,”

have fundamentally challenged the viability of that aspirational worldview.

has extolled the virtues of an interconnected world, one where the free flow of goods, services, people and ideas would lead to shared prosperity and peace.

thefollowingplurilateralinitiativesintheWTO

itseemsfairtoquestion

AsearlyasFebruaryandMarchexperts,backedbyofficialstatisticsofalldeathspercountry,stressedthefacts,thatareasonableresponseshouldberecommended.

Expect an ecosystem of alliances.”

In April the EU agreed such a deal with India and has embarked on a similar process with Japan. Tech is also being discussed in the Quad, the security dialogue between America, Australia, India and Japan.

into a “tech alliance” of democracies

As for the EU, the European Court of Justice may yet strike down the new version of “Privacy Shield”, too. Similar lawsuits are possible in America as well

But Open RAN and virtualisation also weaken two big European firms, Ericsson and Nokia, which are in the same business as Huawei. And they create opportunities for America’s big cloud providers, in particular Amazon Web Services and Microsoft, to get involved in telecoms.

America’s negotiators want the TTC to speed up the deployment of two new ways of building mobile networks called Open RAN (short for Open Radio Access Network) and “virtualisation”.

Optimists note that ordinary Americans, if not their elected representatives, seem open to the idea of such rules: they trust tech companies even less than Europeans do (see chart).

But in most areas, the council’s woolly pledges hint at the difficulty of the task ahead. In AI, the EU and America aim to “develop a shared hub/repository of metrics and methodologies for measuring AI trustworthiness and AI risks”. In climate and clean tech, both “work towards a common methodology for joint EU-US recommendations on selected carbon-intensive products”. In tech investment, the pair are thinking about holding a “tabletop exercise” to learn how the other side reacts when a Russian or Chinese firm comes knocking to acquire a local company. In other words, officials still are trying to find a common language.

an early-warning system to avoid the sort of bottlenecks that have led to the current shortage of microchips

more information and harmonise regulations

an “open, free, global, interoperable, reliable, and secure” internet

the “Declaration for the Future of the Internet”,

If America and the EU had not even been able to agree on data flows, says another official, other attempts at transatlantic co-operation in tech policy would have been futile.

the agreement did not sufficiently limit American law-enforcement agencies’ access to the personal data of European citizens.

It is supposed to be the main venue in which America and the EU co-ordinate policy for the digital realm

the pair account for 55% of the global market for information technology,

The TTC is the West’s response to efforts by China and others (notably Russia after its invasion of Ukraine) to build an autocratic digital world and bring the physical supply-chains that underpin it under their control.

Back then companies had neither healthy balance-sheets nor promising business models. Nowadays many of them have both. The stomach-churning market gyrations are unpleasant to a generation of tech founders, workers and investors who have lived a long bull run. But they are unlikely to stop digital technology eating the world.

Cyber-security firms, such as CrowdStrike or Palo Alto Networks, could see their fortunes return thanks to fears of Russian and Chinese cyber-attacks.

focus on the quality names in tech.

The industry has suffered from an abrupt reversal of fortunes, explains Mark Mahaney of Evercore ISI, an investment bank. In recent years more than one factor gave tech a boost: the coronavirus pandemic pushed life and work online; government stimulus programmes further increased demand; and super-loose monetary policy made tech’s long-term growth more attractive to investors. Now people are turning away from screens and leaving home again; the war in Ukraine is creating paralysing uncertainty; and economies around the world are suffering from inflation and soon, perhaps, recession.

Although they were meant to reach the Moon no matter what, cryptocurrencies are also coming a cropper. Even some hardened “hodlers” have been getting cold feet. On May 12th bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, was trading below $26,000, less than half its peak in early November. Other digital monies have shed even more value. The next four biggest coins have lost more than 70% since their peak. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), even more speculative titles to digital assets such as art that can be traded, have been hammered, too. Sales of NFTs in ether, another big cryptocurrency, have dropped by more than half in recent weeks on OpenSea, a big NFT marketplace.

all the assets that climbed to dizzying heights over the past few years are now coming down to earth. It is harder to say how loudly they will burst—and which might still reflate.

it isn’t too early to say that the war in Ukraine will accelerate the geopolitical and economic shift from the West to the East.

Joe Biden had hoped to put Russia policy on a “stable and predictable” footing in order to focus on America’s Indo-Pacific strategy. The war in Ukraine undoubtedly will distract America’s attention and syphon away resources. It will further hollow out Mr Biden’s Indo-Pacific strategy, which already has too many aims and too few tools and not enough supporters

By contrast China is the largest beneficiary of the rules and regulations of global commerce and finance made by the West after the second world war. China has a huge stake in safeguarding the existing international order.

Mr Putin’s Russia is nostalgic for the heyday of the Soviet empire.

But the war in Ukraine has inadvertently proved that Beijing and Moscow’s rapprochement is not an alliance.