Watch or read the Stephen Ellis Lecture by Camino Kavanagh on Cyberspace and ICT's in Africa

Watch the video of the presentation by Dr Camino Kavanagh.

Dr Camino Kavanagh (Dept. of War Studies, Kings College London) gave an insightful Stephen Ellis Annual Lecture on the impact of Cyberspace and ICTs in Africa. Dr Kavanagh presented an overview of, on the one hand, the benefits of cyberspace, such as greater connectivity thanks to the Internet (388 million users in Africa), which makes social, political and economic engagement easier. Althought still relatively low (10% of the world total), the internet connectivity in Africa is growing.

The challenges, on the other hand, consist of e.g. uneven access to technologies, insecurity by design and cost of security, cybercrime, the use of African states as launch pads for illicit activity in other states, and human rights challenges (states using technologies to spy on political oppostion). There is low consensus in the UN about how to respond. Beyond Africa she discussed the different challenges emerging around the malicious use of ICT by state and non-state actors and the different normative processes and other measures that have emerged within the UN and other multilateral bodies. She also discussed areas where consensus has been harder to achieve - including with regard to how international law applies to state behaviour in the context of international security and the most appropriate framework for dealing with cybercrime. Ensuring that the general public interest is at the core of all efforts should be prioritized, Dr Kavanagh emphasized. The Stephen Ellis Annual Lecture 2017 took place on 13 December. The lecture is organized in honour of our beloved ASCL colleague Prof. Stephen Ellis who died in 2015. His widow, Prof. Gerrie ter Haar, was our special guest of honour.

Read the presentation.
Watch the pictures of the event on Facebook.