The most technologically advanced African countries must “articulate their digital priorities” based on the objectives of the African continent in this field and convert them into an “organizational force”, reinforced the report by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), released earlier this week.
The document shows that our continent needs a “strategic reflection" regarding the "training and domestication of algorithms and the implementation of future digital technologies”, without which African states “run the risk of being swept away by the more digitally mature superpowers and their agendas”, informs Keren Allen, the ISS consultant who signed the study by the South African Institute of Analysis for Security Issues.
According to the specialist, the “competition for ownership of emerging technologies and related power relations” is one of the reasons why Africa “should engage more actively in cyberdiplomacy”, can be read in the ISS report.
The research further adds that Africa “needs to improve the quality of African e-diplomats and incorporate digital expertise”, mainly in the structures of government of the countries.
"African states need the infrastructures that underpin digital technologies, such as the networks, hardware and other tools of the cyber ecosystem. This makes them dependent on other state actors and their proxies, but it also leaves them vulnerable to influence and imported norms on privacy, mass surveillance and security.”, warned Allen.
The report also gives as an example the “rapid deployment of CCTV camera systems along with facial recognition tools“, provided by Chinese companies in countries such as Ethiopia, South Africa, Kenya and Zimbabwe, and the debate on “sovereignty, technological interdependence and digital feudalism” that this process triggered.
Africa is "particularly vulnerable to technological geopolitics", warns the study, adding: "The economic challenges faced by many countries on the continent may incline them to opt for the cheaper technology over the safer one.".
At the end, the ISS report adds, therefore, that the African Union should encourage its 54 Member States to “decouple trade from the cyber diplomacy dialogue".
"Bilateral trade relationships with powerful state technology providers can compromise judgments on governance issues, for example. Decoupling trade from technology can encourage continent-wide approaches to governance and cybersecurity, rather than seeking short-term individual economic gains”, says the text.
"This would reduce the potential for global powers to adopt 'divide and rule' strategies on digital issues”, concludes the ISS.
In this context, if countries like Kenya, South Africa, Mauritius, Nigeria, Ghana, Morocco, Egypt and Rwanda coordinated efforts, “this would certainly strengthen Africa's influence in cyber diplomacy negotiations”, underlines the text, starting with the meeting of diplomatic representatives of African countries at the United Nations, on the 17th, in New York, with their counterparts from around the world to discuss a proposal for a new UN treaty to combat to cybercrime.
