Horn of Africa Digital Governance and Cybersecurity Initiative

Summary

The Initiative for Digital Government and Cybersecurity in Horn of Africa Countries aims to support the governments of Djibouti, Kenya, and Somalia in strengthening e-governance by increasing cybersecurity policy frameworks and cybersecurity awareness.

Details

Aim

The aim of the projects is to support target countries to improve their digital service delivery and to develop national and regional cyber security. The three specific objectives of the project are:

Objective 1: Cybersecurity policy and institutional frameworks are strengthened and converge towards shared regional standards

Objective 2: Cybersecurity awareness and capacity of government officials and IT professionals as well as the general public are enhanced

Objective 3: Operational capabilities to manage cyber security incidents are enhanced

Context

The Horn of Africa Initiative (HoAI) was launched in October 2019 by the governments of Somalia, Djibouti, Kenya, Ethiopia and Eritrea to identify and harmonise regional approaches to address common challenges in the region. The seven current member states of the Initiative, including Sudan (which joined in May 2021) and South Sudan as the newest member (which joined in May 2022), set ambitious targets for a coordinated regional approach to issues of regional connectivity and infrastructure, economic integration and employment promotion, as well as resilience building and human capacity development.

Activities

Activities include: convening with national partners in the region, improving the policy framework; raising awareness of cyber security among users; improve capacity to manage security incidents; carrying out capacity maturity assessments, and strengthening respect for human rights and the principles of the rule of law.

• Djibouti hosted a Committee on the state of digitisation of public services in the countries where the Digital Governance and Cybersecurity in the Horn of Africa project is working. Progress was discussed with details to be read here.