FIFAfrica21: Tackling Cybersecurity on the African continent

FIFAfrica21 |

EU Cyber Direct will on September 29, 2021 convene a session on Africa and the Future of International Cybercrime Cooperation as part of the eighth edition of the Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (FIFAfrica).

According to the Africa Center, African governments face a fast-evolving array of digital threats including espionage, critical infrastructure sabotage and organised crime. The attacks come from a broad range of actors including lone-wolf hackers and criminal syndicates through to foreign governments. Reports indicate that the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated digitisation on the continent leading to cybercriminals stepping up attacks given the limitations on security infrastructure and capacity, with financial institutions  and telecom companies in particular suffering huge losses.

The estimated economic cost of cybercrime in Africa is USD3.5 billion, and it affects the livelihoods and well-being of millions of people, businesses and communities annually. Due to the global footprint that defines cybercrime, there is a shared transnational responsibility that requires international cooperation and coordination to address the phenomenon. While the United Nations Third Committee has initiated a process mandated with elaborating an international convention on cybercrime, many states are still struggling to understand how this new process fits within existing efforts and what their position should be.

The EU Cyber Direct session will work to identify the priorities of African countries for the upcoming negotiations. The session will also brainstorm on how African stakeholders can contribute to the planned negotiation process, and the role African civil society organisations can play in this process.

As part of efforts to combat cybercrime in Africa, the African Union under its Agenda 2063 that was adopted in 2014 recognises cybersecurity as a key priority to ensure that new technologies are used for the good and prosperity of individuals and institutions on the continent. The session is thus timely and will bring synergies to the other on-going efforts towards a more secure cyberspace on the African continent.

The speaker line up includes representatives from Chatham House, Swansea University, Cyber Peace Institute, and the Zambia Police Service.

FIFAfrica convenes various stakeholders from the internet governance and online rights arenas in Africa and beyond to deliberate on gaps, concerns and opportunities for advancing privacy, access to information, free expression, non-discrimination and the free flow of information online. This year’s forum, which runs from September 27 to 30 2021, is hosted by the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) with support from Ford Foundation, Sigrid Rausing Trust (SRT), Omidyar Network, Small Media, Internews, the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EU ISS), and the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Registration for FIFAfrica21 remains open.

#FIFAfrica21: Deliberating Europe-Africa Digital Rights Cooperation

FIFAfrica21

As a supporter of the upcoming Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa 2021 (FIFAfrica21), the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU) will seek to enhance digital rights cooperation between Africa and Europe.

Ambassador Tadej Rupel, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia, Presidency of the Council of European Union 2021, will be part of a keynote panel to kick off FIFAfrica21 on September 28, 2021. Others on the panel are journalist and writer Samira Sawlani, Cameroonian lawyer and activist Michelle Ndoki, and Chief Executive Officer of the Pan African Lawyers Union (PALU), Donald Deya. The panel will put a spotlight on the various dynamics that have come to shape digital rights in Africa in addition to also sharing insights on the path that should be taken towards an inclusive, safe and secure internet in Africa. Ambassador Rupel will speak about Slovenia’s digital rights in Africa engagement as part of the EU and in its national capacity.

Meanwhile, the Slovenia-based International Research Centre on Artificial Intelligence (IRCAI) under the auspices of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and its partner Knowledge 4 All Foundation will host a roundtable on the intersection of African languages and Artificial Intelligence (AI). The session, scheduled to take place on September 29, 2021 starting at 16:30 East African time, will discuss the importance of linguistic and cultural diversity in the digital era. It will also discuss the need to leverage collaborations between AI research communities, policy makers and investors, as well as bilateral cooperation between the African Union and the EU, in order to harvest the benefits offered by Language Technology for realising digital rights in Africa.

The roundtable will highlight ongoing efforts by Masakhane (supported by the Lacuna Fund), which consists of 140 contributors from 17 African countries, focused on the preservation of African languages in the information society. The session will also showcase AI projects with interdisciplinary teams of researchers that have created openly accessible text and speech datasets that will fuel Natural Language Processing (NLP) technologies in nine languages across 22 countries.

The roundtable is part of a series of global events organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia and IRCAI in cooperation with Slovenian embassies and other permanent representatives in 12 countries around the world to garner interest in urgent and global responses to the emerging field of AI. The first event was held in London, United Kingdom on AI and decarbonization.

Speakers during the roundtable will include representatives from Bayero University, Kano-Nigeria; Uganda’s Makerere University; Maskhane; and IRCAI.

Register for the Forum here.

Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa 2021 (#FIFAfrica21) Opens For Registration

#FIFAfrica21 |

On September 28-30, 2021 the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) will host the eighth edition of the Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (#FIFAfrica21). Now in its second year as a hybrid pan-African and global event, the Forum has grown to inform best practice on digital rights protection in Africa. Further, it serves as a platform for deliberation on gaps, concerns and opportunities for advancing privacy, free expression, non-discrimination and the free flow of information online.

This year, FIFAfrica will feature three main tracks –  Access to Information, Digital Inclusion, and Key Trends shaping digital rights in Africa – which will interrogate the deeper facets of internet freedom in the Sub-Saharan Africa context. The sub-themes will include Covid-19 responses, data governance, data privacy, media literacy, misinformation and disinformation, content regulation, internet shutdowns, online violence against women, digital identity, technology and persons with disabilities. The tracks will also feature emerging trends such as shifts in the weaponisation of the internet, new digital rights tools, as well as recent changes in technology laws and regulations.

Keeping in stride with last year’s Forum, the hybrid FIFAfrica21 will incorporate physical engagements in select African countries with strict adherence to Covid-19 Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).

A key pillar of FIFAfrica is the opportunity it provides for a diverse audience including veterans in the digital rights arena through to fledgling digital rights enthusiasts to engage with each other in a shared space on a diversity of interests and concerns. Participants at the Forum include African policymakers, regulators, human rights defenders, academia, technologists, law enforcement representatives, and the media, who are all committed towards advancing digital rights in Africa and promoting the multi-stakeholder model of internet governance.

Over the years, highlights at FIFAfrica have come to include launches of platforms and reports, showcasing of new tools and advocacy ideas as well as a dedicated digital security advisory and support team.

Register here to gain access to the online venue as well as to the broader community who will be participating at the Forum. The online venue will also allow #FIFAfrica21 attendees to  book their seats for sessions of interest, and engage with other attendees.

Data Protection in Africa in the Age of Covid-19

By Boel McAteer and Jean-Benoît Falisse |

As the Covid-19 pandemic spread around the world in the early part of 2020, governments and companies invested substantial resources in gathering data about suspected and confirmed cases, and related behaviours. Learning more about how the virus was spreading was a top priority around the world, and with this came new practices of sharing medical records, tracking people’s movements and tracing their contacts. This has created new norms for data governance in many countries, and in this brave new world of disease surveillance, it is more important than ever to understand data protection and privacy, and where these concepts fit in with the new priorities of managing the pandemic.

The Covid Governance research project has gathered information about country-level data protection and Covid-19 practices across the world. Covering over 200 countries and territories, the project’s Data Protection Explorer Tool provides a snapshot of the legal environment surrounding data protection and privacy, and how it is changing in response to Covid-19. Crucially, it focuses on restrictions on data collection, processing and cross-border transfers.  It also captures digital monitoring measures in place for Covid-19, such as contact tracing, and who owns that data. This will help form a picture of what has changed within data ethics and surveillance during the pandemic, and in the long term what those changes might mean.

So what are some of the key patterns that we can see so far? A joint statement on Data Protection and Privacy in the Covid-19 Response from a number of United Nations (UN) organisations states that any changed practices due to Covid-19 should be legalised and rooted in human rights. However, the information collected via the Data Protection Explorer Tool shows that about a third of Africa’s 54 countries did not have comprehensive data protection laws enforced or in place before the pandemic. During the pandemic, constitutional rights have often been backtracked as a part of the crisis response.

 The Explorer’s data also shows that African countries without specific data protection laws are particularly exposed. Take Namibia for example, whereas no comprehensive data protection law inlaw is in place.  – there is, however, a draft bill in the works and public consultations were conducted in 2020. In the absence of a dedicated data protection framework,  t does not mean data protection is inexistant: as in other African countries, there are provisions in other Namibian laws related to personal data of citizens in specific sectors of the economy such as accounting and  banking (the Banking Institutions Act, 1998 and 2010 amendment) or the legal professions and accounting (Legal Practitioners Act, 15 of 1995 as amended).

The right to personal privacy is also enshrined in Namibia’s constitution as a human right, but this right is limited including in the interests of health and public safety. This allows the government to legally prioritise public health over other human rights throughout the pandemic. Indeed, when Namibia declared a state of emergency in March 2020, many constitutional freedoms were temporarily suspended. For instance, access to education could not be guaranteed anymore and places of worship (constitutive of religious freedom) were closed.

Covid-19 tracing and surveillance mostly occurred offline but the University of Namibia (UNAM) successfully launched a mobile app, named “NamCotrace”, that collects substantial personal information such as the geolocation of users. The app is connected to epidemiological data and the national healthcare system in real time. Whereas it is alleged that “privacy by design” is core to the app, Namibia’s prevailing privacy and data protection legislative environment leaves room for arbitrary abuse. Similarly, Nigeria has developed various Covid-19 apps but with minimal data protection legal safeguards in place, there is ample room for misuse.

The Data Protection Explorer Tool also shows that countries with data protection laws remain vulnerable too. In many instances, the laws have been amended to allow practices that were previously prohibited to take place during the pandemic. In South Africa for instance, the response to Covid-19 has been governed through the Disaster Management Act from 2002 that allows the National Disaster Management Centre to request from individuals or organs of state information it “reasonably requires” and to escalate the matter to parliament in case of failure.

In April 2020 a regulation was introduced to legalise contact tracing in South Africa. This created a tracing database of Covid-19 cases, managed by the National Department of Health, where personal information is gathered from anyone tested for Covid-19. Information collected and stored in the database includes name, residential address, ID and passport number. This means that even though the information is collected legally without consent from the individuals, it would be unlawful to use that data for any other purpose than the one specified in the regulation. Despite these provisions, concerns have been raised that the contact tracing enables government surveillance of the population, since the Director General of Health can track the location of anyone suspected to have Covid-19 through phone service providers.

At the other end of the continent, Iin West Africa’s Burkina Faso, the data protection law prohibits collection of personal data relating to health. It had not, at the time of writing, been amended. However, since 2019, a digital platform for health surveillance has been  is in place.: One Health is funded by USAID and combines data from three ministries concerned with zoonotic disease control.  in the same place. When the first cases of Covid-19 were detected in the country in 2020, however, the platform was adapted to include data on the new virus, tracing cases, and their contacts. This is, obviously, raising privacy (and legality) concerns.

There are also some inspiring examples. The B’Safe app in Botswana was developed as an alternative to a manual Covid-19 tracing system. Described as privacy-friendly and in line with the country’s data protection (and privacy) law that pre-dates the pandemic, the app recorded a decent initial adoption rate. However, without an established data protection authority to enforce the law and oversee the app’s roll out, security vulnerabilities within the app led to private citizens lodging a court case against the country’s Covid-19 task force challenging the apps  its safety. The progress of the case remains unclear to-date. However, it highlights the importance of independent data protection authorities, good examples of which include in Angola and Senegal, and the pandemic potentially being a decisive push in countries where they are yet to be established.

Where are we heading now? Data protection laws in Africa were rapidly developing in the years leading up to the pandemic, with many new laws influenced by the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which was adopted in 2016. The examples above show the many ways in which the data protection environment in Africa is changing with the pandemic.

As the general state of democracy and freedoms is deemed to be worsening since the outbreak of Covid-19, it will be important to continue to monitor developments in data protection and privacy: the pandemic could be the opportunity to speed up the process of establishing much-needed laws and enforcement agencies but it could also lead to them being less protective of citizens (and more permissive for government) than in the pre-Covid-19 world.

The Covid Governance Project is an initiative of the University of Edinburgh. It was developed with support from the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FDCD), the Global Challenges Research Fund – Scottish Funding Council, and the University of Edinburgh’s Challenge Investment Fund. Explore the Data Protection Explorer Tool.

Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa 2021 (FIFAfrica21) Set For September: Propose a Session!

Announcement |

On September 28-30, 2021, the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) will host the eighth edition of the annual Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (FIFAfrica). The Forum is a landmark event that convenes a wide spectrum of stakeholders from across the internet governance and digital rights arenas to deliberate on gaps, concerns and opportunities for advancing privacy, free expression, non-discrimination and the free flow of information online.

Taking on a hybrid approach (virtual and physical), FIFAfrica responds to rising challenges to the enjoyment of internet freedom in various African countries, including arrests and intimidation of online users, internet disruptions, digital taxes, and a proliferation of laws and regulations that undermine the potential of digital technology to drive the continent’s socio-economic and political development. 

FIFAfrica, therefore, puts internet freedom on the agenda of key actors including African policymakers, regulators, human rights defenders, academia, law enforcement representatives, and the media, paving the way for broader work on advancing digital rights in Africa and promoting the multi-stakeholder model of internet governance.

Internet freedom is multi-faceted, and just like it requires to have a multiplicity of stakeholders working jointly, it also requires diversity in the voices, backgrounds, viewpoints, and thematic work areas of those that attend FIFAfrica.

 In the shadow of Covid-19, FIFAfrica is an extension of our work and that of diverse stakeholders to ensure continued proactive efforts to advance effective and inclusive Information and Communication Technology (ICT) policy debates and to elevate marginalised communities and at-risk groups – including women and vulnerable minorities such as refugees, sexual minorities and persons with disabilities – in internet governance dialogues.

Content Themes At FIFAfrica21

This year, FIFAfrica will pivot around three key themes through engagements running over three days. Through carefully curated sessions and workshops, it will interrogate the deeper internet freedom layers shaping these themes as listed below. 

1. Access To Information: The right of access to information especially in the online domain is coming under increased threats, including through digital taxation, network disruptions, and laws criminalising some content. Since inception, FIFAfrica has coincided with the International Day for Universal Access to Information (IDUAI) marked every September 28 so as to increase awareness on the right to information. Over the years, UNESCO, media organisations, government agencies and civil society entities have joined in to host sessions, workshops, and specialised training on the various ways in which access to information and digital rights coincide. This year, we will continue to join the global community in celebrating the integral role of this right in advancing human rights both online and offline.

2. Digital Inclusion as a means to an end for the Web We Want: The internet is public good and a basic right. However, in Sub-Saharan Africa, this is far from reality. Promoting an inclusive internet is at the core of what we do at CIPESA and is one of the reasons why we are members of the global Web We Want coalition initiated by the Web Foundation. Digital exclusion is shaped by numerous factors including disability, language, education, income, and gender. 

Further, there is a growing concern that minority and marginalised communities such as refugees and persons with disabilities are being left behind in accessing information on Covid-19. This is because, despite the recent expansion in ICT usage, digital exclusion persists due to limited access and affordability of the requisite ICT tools, low digital literacy skills and shortage of content in accessible formats.

3. Key Trends in 2021 shaping the digital landscape in Africa: The various challenges that were affecting digital rights in Africa have been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Under the guise of addressing the health concerns emerging from the pandemic, many measures introduced may have granted authoritarian regimes a blank cheque to impose unnecessary, broad and long-lasting measures that affect digital rights. However, there are some positives that have been registered with technology gaining centrality in the lives of states, persons and communities. Nonetheless, the pandemic has illuminated the unequal access to technology in African countries and  FIFAfrica will delve into the trends that have emerged over the course of the year, and explore ways to address the gaps and concerns.

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How To Be A Part Of The 2021 Edition of the Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa

There are various ways in which individuals and organisations can be a part of FIFAfrica as listed below:

  • Host a session (panel discussion/ workshop/ training: Is there a particular area of interest you would like to engage on? – Click here
  • Contact us directly if you have an alternative approach you would like to discuss further – Email us here

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 Important dates: Please note the below important dates related to participation at the Forum:

  • Session proposals will be accepted till August 21, 2021
  • Successful session proposals will be directly notified by August 31, 2021