IGF 2018 WS #258
Inclusive approaches to developing national cyber strategies

Organizer 1: Barbara Marchiori, Organization of American States
Organizer 2: Daniela Schnidrig,

Speaker 1: Francisco Javier Vera Hott, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 2: Lea Kaspar, Civil Society, Eastern European Group
Speaker 3: De La Cruz Sarabia Mario, Private Sector, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 4: Cuello Zoraima, Government, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)

Moderator

Belisario Contreras, Organization of American States

Online Moderator

Daniela Schnidrig, Global Partners Digital

Rapporteur

Sheetal Kumar, Global Partners Digital

Format

Round Table - 90 Min

Interventions

The purpose of the session is to address the relevance of including different stakeholder groups in the development of national cybersecurity strategies and explore best practices from case studies. Suggested speakers come from different stakeholder groups and have been / are involved in the development of national cybersecurity strategies therefore bringing unique perspectives and insight to the discussion.

Diversity

The list of proposed speakers is varied and diverse in terms of gender, geography, stakeholder groups, policy perspectives and areas of expertise. Suggested speakers are qualified experts who will bring unique perspectives to the discussion.

This session will address the relevance of having inclusive approaches to the development of cybersecurity strategies, with a focus on sharing good practice examples from different countries of how to involve stakeholders in the process of developing and implementing NCSS.

With increasing challenges to ensure a free, open and secure online environment, and a growing demand for cybersecurity responses, it is vital for all stakeholders to work together. Governments are recognising that internet policy issues are increasingly complex and have impacts across society, economy and policy. This makes policy development all the more challenging and the considerations more broad and interrelated. This complexity warrants an inclusive and expertise-driven approach to policy development. The need for effective cross-stakeholder collaboration in the field of cybersecurity policy is now widely recognised and commitments to the approach are growing. However, although a repository of good practice has started to emerge as more and more countries work to develop and implement their NCSSs, examples of doing this in a multistakeholder way remain scarce.

This session aims to bring together different stakeholders involved in the development of national cybersecurity strategies to discuss why it’s vital that NCSSs are developed and implemented in an inclusive way, and to share concrete examples of best practices that could be adopted by other countries that are currently in the process of developing their NCSS.

Agenda / session structure
● Introduction. Introducing speakers and explaining structure and purpose of the session.
● Inclusive approaches to NCSS development and best practices. Speakers to make a brief intervention each on the relevance of stakeholder participation in NCSS development, and to share examples of good practice from processes of developing NCSS. (3 to 5 minutes – max)
● Q&A session led by moderator.
● Q&A session with questions from participants and remote participants.
● Distillation of key learnings and takeaways from best practices.
● Closing remarks by moderator.

The roundtable format will enable a dynamic and interactive conversation with expert speakers. The moderator will make sure to give everyone equal opportunity to participate. Speakers will provide brief interventions to kick off the debate, after which both audience participants and online participants will have the opportunity to comment, ask questions and engage with the experts.

A cyberspace that is free, open and secure is a prerequisite for a digital future that benefits us all and that allows society to fully reap the potential of digital technologies. In the face of the increasing prevalence, diversity, complexity and severity of cyberattacks, having a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy in place is becoming critical to a nation’s economic and social well-being. Addressing cybersecurity challenges that a nation faces makes the development of national cybersecurity strategies (NCSSs) all the more challenging and this, in turn, necessitates an approach that leverages a broad set of expertise and engages a broader set of stakeholders in the NCSS development process.

This workshop, which will build on the Open Forum “OAS and the promotion of national cybersecurity strategies in the Americas”, will focus on stakeholder engagement in the development and implementation of national cybersecurity strategies, highlighting and sharing examples of good practices from the processes of development of NCSS in different countries of the world, like Ghana, Chile, Mexico and Dominican Republic.

Online Participation

A remote moderator will be in permanent contact with remote participants and update them on the progress of the session. Remote participants will be encouraged to feed into the discussion, and their comments and remarks will be fed back to the room to incorporate them in the discussion.
There will be a specific segment of the session dedicated to receiving questions from remote participants, to make sure they have opportunities to intervene and engage.