Policy Brief - THE MALABO CONVENTION AND AFRICA’S CYBER POSTURE

This piece concludes by arguing the instrumentality of the synergy between African Governance Architecture (AGA) and the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA), also known as the AGA-APSA synergy to address the challenges impeding the success of the Malabo Convention. [...] The Convention aimed to define the objectives and broad orientations of the information society in Africa, and also strengthen existing legislation on Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) of the Member States and the Regional Economic Communities (RECs).2 The content of the Convention was based on the continent’s needs and context at the time of its development, its adoption (on Septe. [...] insufficient to hinder the strengthening The Malabo Convention and its gaps of Africa’s cyber posture as Africa’s which were mentioned earlier are at ownership of its cyber agenda the nexus of governance, peace and demonstrates.25 Thus, entry points security which constitute the essence to expand the scope of the Malabo of the AGA-APSA synergy towards Convention are not impossible. [...] • The PAPS Department of the AU should harmonize a cyber agenda within the AGA-APSA synergy from a viewpoint that is inclusive of all manifestations of cyberattacks, and on that basis engage state parties that ratified the Malabo Convention with the aim of encouraging them to submit proposals for the amendment and revision of the Malabo Convention. [...] Therefore, the AU Commission may engage REC in the revision of the Malabo Convention in view of ensuring coordination within the APSA framework in terms of capturing the different manifestations of cyberattacks, enhancing political buy-in with state parties, and encouraging the ratification implementation of the Convention’s provision.