Cyber Capacity Building Impact Evaluation: 
Bringing Solutions to Life

Road to GC3B Geneva 2025

Accelerating Impact Evaluation Efforts for More Resilient Development

In the “Accra Call for Cyber Resilient Development”, the global CCB community committed at the Global Conference on Cyber Capacity Building (GC3B) in November 2023  to “accelerate efforts to improve the measurement of cyber capacity building results [….] by actively and systematically integrating methodologies and good practices from the international development field”. We support this call with this research project in support of the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise (GFCE)’s Strategy and Assessments Working Group (GFCE WG) we begun with two sessions at the GC3B: A panel discussion “Driving impact: making the case for better evaluation of CCB”, making the case for CCB actors to invest resources in IE; and a complementing practitioner workshop “Improving CCB Evaluation Practice - Knowledge Sharing and Community Building”. In both sessions, members of the CCB and International Development (ID) communities identified the strong need for more knowledge, research, and action on what works and doesn’t work in CCB and on what the solutions could be. The session outcomes are summarised here.

After the conference we also published a paper “Evaluating the Impact of Cybersecurity Capacity Building” which provides the community members with a problem statement and outline of potential pathways for solutions.

This research is undertaken by the GCSCC, Integrity and Royal Holloway University London (RHUL) and in collaboration with members of the CCB and ID communities.

 

Our Road to Geneva 2025

To make tangible progress on the Accra Call we propose a programme of work to build on the outcomes of the November 2023 GC3B, with the aim of presenting concrete progress on this issue at the next GC3B which will take place in Geneva in 2025, hosted by the Swiss Government. The two-year time frame until then provides a unique opportunity to build upon on the momentum of the GC3B in Accra and to bring solutions to life.

Our ambition can be described across four main areas:

  • Theory – Our understanding of how CCB is expected to work.
  • Data – Understanding what data can be used to measure theory and context.
  • Methodology – Understanding how to use theory and data to make evaluative judgements.
  • Use – Case studies on the use of evaluation evidence to systematically improve CCB policy and practice.

For the details what our vision is for each of the areas, how we want to achieve it, and what the specific outputs, please read the concept note:

 

Leadership and delivery

This research work will continue to be undertaken by the GCSCC, Integrity and Royal Holloway University London (RHUL), in support of the GFCE WG and in collaboration with members of the CCB and ID communities.

It is, however, unlikely that all the proposed outputs of this work can be delivered without material and/or financial contribution from other stakeholders. The project team has started to establish how the work can be scaled up and down and seeking to secure sufficient resources to take the minimum feasible level of work forward.

If you’re are interesting in getting involved and receive updates the project’s process please write to carolin.weisser@cs.ox.ac.uk