The GFCE was launched in 2015 by the Dutch Government and 41 ministers and other high-level representatives from business and international organisations. As a multi-stakeholder community of more than 160 members and partners from all over the world, the GFCE’s overarching goal is to be a pragmatic, action-oriented and flexible forum that aims to strengthen cyber capacity building (CCB) and expertise globally.
The GFCE Secretariat, with its office being located here at the HSD campus and supported by 15 employees, is the operational and logistical body of the GFCE.
We are happy to introduce you to this valuable HSD Campus member. As a global networking platform, the GFCE provides access to a worldwide cyber capacity building community in which, through international and regional collaboration projects, their members and partners can connect needs, resources, and expertise, making practical knowledge available on a global level.
The GFCE community is composed of Members and Partners with the former consisting of countries, intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) and private companies and the latter ranging from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to the technical community and academia.
Although membership and partnership is free of charge, it entails an active participation in the GFCE mechanisms, such as the GFCE Working Groups, the Global CCB Research Agenda, the Clearing House and the Cybil Knowledge Portal.
“The cornerstone of the GFCE” says Wouter Veenstra, Global Outreach & Partnerships, “has always been the needs of the community. The GFCE has evolved in response to what individual Members and Partners have to offer, in addition to considerations of how the GFCE could provide a platform to foster the sharing of expertise and best practices on cyber capacity building”.
This multi-stakeholder community provides a space in which its Members and Partners exchange best practices and expertise on cyber capacity building, identifying successful policies, practices and initiatives and amplifying them on a global level. Furthermore, the community consists of both problem owners and solution providers, which are matched through projects and tenders with ongoing support from the GFCE.
“As the recognition of capacity building on the international stage is growing”, says Marjo Baayen, Director of the GFCE, “it is important that the GFCE’s multistakeholder network continues to work together to build and maintain an open, free and secure cyberspace. The GFCE will continue to grow as an inclusive, neutral, non-political network that is the venue of choice for all stakeholders to push forward the agenda on cyber capacity building”.
To support its mission, GFCE’s Cybil portal provides a comprehensive online cyber capacity building knowledge repository with currently 805 projects, 773 acto rs and 16 upcoming events, giving access to reports, research papers and webinars. Cybil portal is a free tool available at cybilportal.org.
The door of the GFCE office is always open to inform the HSD Community about their work, its mechanisms and their global network.
