Catalyzing Women’s Entrepreneurship – Creating a Gender Responsive Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

Women ICT Frontier Initiative
24-25 July
Suva, Fiji

Fiji recently launched a programme on ‘Catalyzing Women’s Entrepreneurship – Creating a Gender Responsive Entrepreneurial Ecosystem.’

This regional initiative is a 5-year programme, funded by the Government of Canada with support from the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

Launched in Suva by H.E. Mereseini Vuniwaqa, Minister for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation, the programme is aimed at strengthening entrepreneurial ecosystems that foster women’s entrepreneurship, enhancing women entrepreneurs’ access to capital through innovative financing mechanisms, and increasing women entrepreneurs use of ICT tools.

A national consultation on ‘Enabling Environment for Women’s Entrepreneurship’ was held in Pacific Harbour to carry out scoping exercises and to look at ways to strategize for achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5: Gender Equality, and multiple related goals within the ‘2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.’
The following three priority components of the programme will play a significant role in progressing the programmes activities and achieving the overall outcomes :

1. A gender responsive entrepreneurial ecosystem capacity development that is focused on policy development and improving legal and regulatory frameworks, and other barriers that discourage women owned enterprises.
2. Innovative financing mechanisms: mobilizing capital by developing innovative financing instruments to crowd in public and private funding, and supporting FinTech solutions by MSMEs by piloting innovative digital solutions to improve the access and usage of financial services for women-owned, managed or led MSMEs
3. Women ICT Frontier Initiative: strengthening capacity of government leaders and policy makers to create an enabling environment for ICT empowered women entrepreneurs

Other important sessions and panel discussions were also held which included topics from :

• Women’s entrepreneurship: challenges, opportunities and potential policy options
• Creating a gender-responsive entrepreneurial ecosystem
• Increasing access to finance for women entrepreneurs
• Leveraging the power of ICT for women entrepreneurship

A session on ‘Women in ICT’ – Leveraging the Power of ICT for Women Entrepreneurship, moderated by Ms. Salanieta Tamanikaiwaimaro (Pasifika Nexus), was the highlight of this event, seeing some of the regions ICT experts discussing their regional development initiatives to empower more women entrepreneurship and their increased involvement in the ICT sector and policymaking roles.

Further recommendations were made on the ways to advance gender empowerment and innovation for women and girls, approaches to attract more women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields, and the importance of closely engaging with law enforcement to combat violence against women within our communities, which has been a major issue for most of the Pacific Island nations.

Despite the fact that there are entrepreneurship opportunities available, women entrepreneurs still face so many barriers in the Pacific region. Access to financial services and digital financial literacy have been identified as key challenges in Catalyzing Women’s Entrepreneurship, and all of which have to be built within Government’s national policies to be completely effective and meeting global targets.

Author : Elvin Prasad is the Regional ICT Coordinator at the Council of Regional Organisations of the Pacific (CROP) ICT.

The views expressed by the author of this blog are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of PICISOC.

Report by Elvin Prasad

‘CybersecCon Pacific 2019’ was held in Suva, Fiji on 29 & 30 July, 2019.

This regional Cybersecurity event was the first of its kind to be hosted here in Fiji, giving an insight about Cybersecurity in the Pacific region, global security trends, threat prevention and management, incident response, ICT infrastructure protection, and enterprise solutions for IT security.

The conference had the presence of participants from various sectors who had some of the vital roles such as IT Security Managers, CISOs & CTOs, Security Practitioners, IT Security Analysts & Engineers, Cloud Administrators, and Regional Security Experts.

It also included a Technical Workshop on Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) and an Advanced Hands-On Workshop specifically for security engineers and threat analysts.

Some of the conference topics and panel discussions included deliberations in the following areas of IT Security :

• Pacific regional status of Cybersecurity
• Data protection and organizational security
• Cybersecurity challenges faced by CTOs in Fiji
• Cloud and Enterprise security
• Defense methods against Cyber Attacks
• Threat hunting demonstrations

Safer Internet Center Fiji has been closely working with industry partners in the Pacific Islands ICT sector to establish national and regional Cybersecurity standards that are aligned to international standards, creating tactics and guidelines for corporate IT security measures, and developing Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT) frameworks for sector-based security operations and effective incident handing and response capabilities.  

Elvin Prasad is the Coordinator for Safer Internet Centre Fiji.

The views expressed by the author of this blog are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of PICISOC.

Report by Elvin Prasad

The ‘Pacific Islands Cyber Capacity Building Engagement – Strategic Cyber Planning and Implementation’ Conference was recently hosted in Nadi, Fiji on 19 & 20 August, 2019.
The 2-day conference was held at Sheraton Fiji Resort, with the aim to build Cyber capacity for Pacific member countries, assist with the development of national Cybersecurity strategies and establish national Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERT). ICT Connectivity for Pacific countries was another topic of discussion –addressing infrastructure issues and connectivity challenges and opportunities that lie within this region.
Six countries from across the Pacific were represented by senior officials and Cyber policy makers to discuss best practices in establishing long-term Cyber strategies and implementing Cybersecurity development solutions for the Pacific region.
The conference brought together experts from regional organizations, academic institutions and officials from several governmental agencies. National representatives shared their progress updates in Cybersecurity and talked about the challenges in bringing secure and resilient connectivity to their countries.
The Conference sessions were mainly focused on strategic and policy approaches, discussions on Cyber capacity building efforts for the Pacific region, which included the following topics :
• National Cyber Strategy Development and Implementation
• Cyber Best Practices
• ICT Connectivity for Pacific Islands
• National Risk Identification and Management
• Mitigating Risk Through Incident Response Preparedness

Based on recent findings, most Pacific member countries supported the idea of a Regional Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) model. The successful implementation of a Regional CERT would depend on accessible resources and financial support; towards such a critical initiative that will ensure best practices for achieving regional security in the Pacific.
More than 40% of the respondents felt that CERT establishments and developing Cyber Crime laws were priority areas for their countries, seeking urgent commitment of their Governments towards these developments.
Safer Internet Center Fiji is engaged in research works around Internet safety and security together with regional partners, tirelessly promoting and empowering Online Safety in the Pacific by developing a protective regional network for socially conscious Internet users. Online safety education, Cyberbullying and Digital Literacy are some of their recent development initiatives.

Elvin Prasad is the Coordinator for Safer Internet Centre Fiji.
The views expressed by the author of this blog are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of PICISOC.

Source: CIO from IDG click the link to read as originally published.

New Zealand will provide $10 million over five years to support Pacific countries as they develop national cybersecurity strategies, secure infrastructure and data, enhance online safety, and implement robust cyber-crime laws across the Pacific.

“Building cybercapability in the Pacific is one of the priority actions of New Zealand’s cybersecurity strategy,” says Kris Faafoi, minister of broadcasting, communications and digital media.

Faafoi says as part of this initiative, the government will be creating a dedicated Pacific Partnership Advisor role within New Zealand’s Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT NZ) to work with Pacific countries to lift their cyber security capability.

“With improvements in connectivity in the region, Pacific countries are seeing an increased risk of cyber security threats and New Zealand is committed to supporting our Pacific neighbours to provide a safe, secure online environment for their citizens and to maximise the benefits of a free and open internet while minimising cyber security risks,” says minister of foreign affairs Winston Peters.