Professor Nnenna Ifeanyi-Ajufo

Women and Cyber Rights in Africa explores the challenges faced by African women in cyberspace, highlighting the exacerbation of gender inequalities by emerging technologies. Authored by African female researchers, it employs multidisciplinary approaches and Afro-feminist theories to discuss biases, stereotypes, and the impact of patriarchal structures. The book addresses limited digital literacy, gendered cyber-criminality, and inadequate gender-sensitive policies. It aims to spur effective policy development and further research on African women's cyber rights.

The world is going through a profound change where advances in Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) have tied nation states into an increasingly complex web of development, 1 thus prompting the extreme importance of access to ICTs.2 Article 27 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR)3 provides that ‘everyone has the right to participate, enjoy and share in scientific advancement and its benefits’. Though, billions of people the world over are presently excluded from access to ICTs necessitating the submission yet those who lack access to ICTs are extremely marginalised from present day development. This article critically weighs the immense importance of ICTs to everyday living and global development, the relationship between access to ICTs, law and human rights and recommends the adoption of a human rights-based approach towards bridging the ICTs or digital divide.

Several African countries are pursuing digital transformation ambitions – applying new technologies to enhance the development of society. But concerns exist over the absence of appropriate policies across the continent to create a resilient and secure cyber environment.

Further to this, is the fact that everyone has a Right to Development. Could Access to ICTs be a Human Right? Is there a better method to bridge the digital divide and ensure universal access to ICTs?

International cooperation efforts have increasingly focused on cybersecurity in Africa. Despite the diversity of these initiatives, Africa has yet to prioritise cybersecurity. Without coordination and accountability, divergent cybersecurity visions and models may instead derail Africa’s cybersecurity development.

The Malabo Convention has now entered into force. But with ratifications from only 15 of 55 AU member states – and none yet from any of Africa’s power countries, such as Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Morocco or Ethiopia – will the Convention be accorded the regional and international validation needed to become a viable instrument for regulating cybersecurity in the entire African region?

African governments’ views on cybersecurity are not homogenous and actions that indicate ideals of “net nationalism” continue to emerge in parts of Africa. A politics of net nationalism utterly focused on individual governmental interests will imperil international cooperation, mutual legal assistance and the cross-border flow of information, and may derail international cybersecurity efforts, especially harmful to a region like Africa that undeniably needs digital cooperation to effectively ensure cybersecurity. It is the time for African states to focus on global best practices and strategic cooperation and show interest in multilateral efforts aimed at enhancing cybersecurity and cyber governance.

Bridging the digital divide in Africa will not be possible without adequate people-centred cybersecurity measures

Developments in cyberspace are becoming increasingly important for the work of diplomats. The training on cyber diplomacy was designed and delivered to diplomats from South Africa.

A lecture delivered to the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) Africa-Women in Cyber Fellows.

Cybercrime is a growing threat to the security, prosperity and well-being of the Commonwealth and its member countries, and poses a challenge to security, privacy, the economy and human rights. Some of these challenges include a lack of harmonised legal frameworks to address the diverse and emergent forms of sophisticated cyberattacks. Proper cybercrime legislation is key to a comprehensive and holistic approach in addressing the challenges and opportunities of cyberspace. To combat cybercrime effectively, there is a need for coordinated policies and actions at the national, regional and international levels across the Commonwealth and beyond. In line with the common vision set out in the 2018 Commonwealth Cyber Declaration, all member countries are enjoined to ensure that the cyberspace remains free, open and inclusive across the Commonwealth. Commonwealth member countries are at various cyber-legislation maturity levels and a lack of adequate legal frameworks and cybersecurity strategies implies a vulnerability to cyber threats. Without an appropriate legal framework, cybercrime will increasingly undermine essential trust and confidence in Information Communications Technologies (ICTs) required for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and advancing the Commonwealth’s values of democracy, human rights, rule of law and good governance. Cybercrime legislation should be flexible and adaptable to cope with the dynamic nature of cybercrime and ICTs. The legislation should also foster innovation and creativity in ICT use for social and economic development, which does not infringe on the rights and interests of others. It is therefore imperative that Commonwealth member countries adopt appropriate cybercrime frameworks that can effectively prevent, investigate, and prosecute cybercrime, as well as protect the rights and interests of victims and witnesses. This mapping report provides an overview of the current state of cybercrime laws and policies in the 56 Commonwealth countries. It highlights challenges, opportunities and best practices for enhancing cybersecurity and resilience. The report aims to foster dialogue and international cooperation for capacity building and to inspire action among all Commonwealth countries in their efforts to tackle cybercrime. The harmonisation of cybercrime legislation across the Commonwealth will enable international cooperation and mutual legal assistance in combating cybercrime. Appropriate cybercrime legislation should respect and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms, especially the right to privacy, freedom of expression, access to information and due process of law. Such legislation should comply with the principles of legality, necessity, proportionality and accountability. The Commonwealth Secretariat will continue to assist member countries to build the foundations of an effective national cybercrime response while promoting stability in cyberspace through laws and policies which are people-centred, and which protect human rights and fundamental freedoms. Rt Hon. Patricia Scotland KC Secretary-General of the Commonwealth

The exponential permeation of emerging technologies has become a source of international debate on defining cyber activities linked to the evolving strategies of warfare. Cyber espionage is a growing national security issue. The developing cyber-related aspects of espionage have meant that threats are becoming limitless while targeting various actors. There are further issues related to the categorization of non-state actors in the discourse, and how international legal frameworks on the topic may develop in relation to international security. While the imminent threat of cyber espionage certainly impacts the political interactions between nation-states and may increasingly change the nature of modern warfare, non-state actors and identifiable vulnerabilities are also implicated. The chapter aims to foster the enhancement of policy and capacity to address cyber espionage in the promotion of international security. It examines the impact of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence in the expansion of cyber espionage, the emergent international and national approaches to delineating the discourse, and the normative implications for international cyber security strategies in the development of regulatory frameworks.

Ghana’s economy, like many others, is still recovering from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.1 Despite this, the mobile money industry in Ghana enjoyed a big boost during the pandemic. In 2018, Ghana launched one of the first interoperable systems in Africa, which allows transactions between different telecom service providers in Ghana; reports reveal that the interoperability-supported payments reached 308 million Ghanaian cedis (GH₵) ($57 million) by 2019.2 Since then, mobile money has risen to become the most popular digital financial service (DFS) in Ghana, and in recent years, Ghana has been identified as one of the biggest mobile money markets and the fastest-growing one in Africa.3 The Bank of Ghana reported in 2021 that mobile money accounts, which numbered 32.7 million in February 2020, grew to number 40.9 million by February 2021.4 Mobile money service provides users with electronic accounts linked to their phone numbers from which they can store, send, and receive money.5 The simplicity of this service coupled with the convenience it offers has made it an ideal DFS solution for many Ghanaians, but there are also many challenges—including cyber crime, the need for infrastructure and digital capacity, and government policies such as the new Electronic Transactions Levy (or “e-levy”) and digital ID systems—that have inhibited digital financial inclusion (DFI).6 This paper discusses the state of DFI in Ghana and the regulatory framework for DFS, with particular attention paid to mobile money services as the major DFS player in the country and to the government’s digital security strategies in relation to DFS.

The exacerbation of racial inequality through the design of technologies remains an under stated way in which the evolution of digital technologies impacts our human rights. As we continue to consider the impacts of modern technology on our human rights in areas such as privacy, freedom of expression, etc., we must also increasingly consider the interaction between digital technologies and forms of racial inequality. We continue to see how people of certain races are subjected to prejudicial consequences and outcomes of the design and deployment of digital technologies. This makes it relevant to examine a racial (in)equality perspective of advancing a “human rights by design” agenda for digital technologies. The conversations about racial inequality and digital technologies have also not specifically cen tered the discourse from a dependence perspective. This gave cause for the paper which links the development of digital technologies to thoughts about dependence through ex amining the racial inequality and discrimination discourse that has emerged because of the development and deployment of digital technologies. Perhaps racial inequality is also ex acerbated by dependence on digital technologies developed in settings and cultures that give little recognition to the need to include all races in the design and deployment of digital technologies. Thoughts about the obligation of tech companies to imply key human rights standards such as non-discrimination and equality in the design stages of digital technolo gies further provides a background for the elaboration of the idea that “design thinking” can promote tech designing in a manner that incorporates safeguards against racial discrimination based on human rights standards

Africa has recently focused on an ambition to achieve digital transformation through the pursuit of various flagship initiatives which are aimed at achieving its ‘Agenda 2063’ objectives. Digital transformation will be better achieved through appropriate cyber governance policies and mechanisms, and the success of Africa’s Digital Transformation Strategy 2020-2030 hinges on diverse factors. According to the Strategy, African governments have a fundamental responsibility to create an enabling environment, with policies and regulations that promote digital transformation across foundation pillars, which include cybersecurity. The Strategy also stipulates the need to reinforce the region’s human and institutional capacity to secure the cyberspace by building trust and confidence in the use of cyber technologies. The aim of the paper is to examine Africa’s cyber governance agenda in relation to peace and security. While there are political dimensions to determining the thresholds of such discourses in Africa, the uncertainties of governance mechanisms, political underpinnings and limitations in digital capacity may mean that international standards of cyber governance have merely been theoretical in the African context. The paper examines Africa’s extant policies and political strategies for cyber governance, and the region’s interaction with international cyber governance processes. The paper further discusses the prospects and challenges to cyber governance in the region, and the approaches to leveraging international cooperation in promoting cyber stability in the region.