Established in 2015, the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise (GFCE) is recognised as a global go-to place for governments, industry, and other partners to strengthen cyber capacity building and coordinate existing international efforts more effectively.
At the invitation of the Oceania Cyber Security Centre, the GFCE held its first regional Pacific meeting on cyber capacity building in February 2020 in Melbourne. The idea of a regional meeting was formed by Pacific members and partners of the GFCE as they sensed an opportunity for Pacific partners to be more closely connected to the Forum.
The meeting concluded with a couple of recommendations for future cyber capacity building (CCB) activity in the Pacific:
- to balance investment efforts across the broad spectrum of cyber needs in the region;
- to improve coordination, knowledge sharing and transparency among Pacific Island nations, and between Pacific Island nations, regional donors, and implementers; and
- to address specific gaps in areas of national cyber capacity building, including gaps in international capacity maturity assessment models.
Consequently, the GFCE – with support from the NZ and UK governments – commissioned a scoping report to analyse the cyber capacity building environment in the Pacific and to produce clear recommendations on a role and design of a GFCE platform in the Pacific.
Activities undertaken:
- February 2020: Regional conference on CCB in the Pacific, hosted by the Oceania Cyber Security Centre
- September 2020: Start of scoping assessment: appointment of a GFCE Pacific Liaison and start of multi-stakeholder consultations
- November 2020: Pacific session on the agenda of the GFCE Annual Meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Communications, Tuvalu, and Chris Painter, President of the GFEC Foundation
- April – June 2021: Initial scoping report followed by validation sessions.
UPDATES
On this webpage, updates on the project’s progress will be posted as they appear.
- #1: Briefing to the GFCE Consultation Meeting, 16 June 2021.