Cyber capacity-building (CCB) is an umbrella concept for various types of activity in which individuals, organizations and governments collaborate nationally or across borders to develop capacity and capabilities that mitigate cyber risks to the safe, secure and open use of information and communications technologies (ICTs). This field of cooperation has evolved over approximately two decades and involves a diverse ecosystem of stakeholders – including technical incident responders, law enforcement agencies and civil society actors – actively engaged in its development, delivery and ongoing evaluation. This collaborative environment underscores the collective efforts required by a broad range of stakeholders to effectively deliver CCB activities and navigate the evolving challenges and opportunities in cyberspace.
In 2021, the United Nations (UN) Open-ended Working Group (OEWG) on developments in the field of ICTs in the context of international security – a platform that includes all UN member states and aims to address issues related to the international security dynamics of ICTs – issued a final consensus report in which it outlined 10 principles to guide CCB efforts in this context (Figure 1). Since then, OEWG member states and other stakeholders have emphasized the need for a better understanding of those principles and guidance on how to mainstream them in CCB activities. Indeed, the OEWG’s second annual progress report in 2023 recommended the development of ‘voluntary checklists and other tools to assist States in mainstreaming the capacity-building principles from the 2021 OEWG report into capacity-building initiatives related to ICT security’.
This paper responds to these ongoing calls within the OEWG to raise awareness of the CCB principles and to enhance understanding of their purpose, utility and application. In the following three sections, this paper situates the CCB principles within the framework of responsible state behaviour and contextualizes them in international development, explores what the principles mean and entail, and then provides a project example to illustrate their practical application. While the paper focuses on the OEWG CCB principles, it is intended to support broader efforts aimed at adopting a principles-based approach to capacity-building. Further research is needed on how different stakeholder groups can operationalize the CCB principles and how they can be applied in other CCB projects. As such, this paper is an initial step in a long-term journey.
