The West Africa Civil Society Institute has revealed that 31 percent of the Civil Society Organisations, CSOs in the West Africa region experienced digital security attacks in the past 12 months.
The institute disclosed this during the launch of a research report titled “Landscape Mapping of Civil Society Digital Security in West Africa.”
According to the report, which was supported by the Mott Foundation, said Nigerian CSOs have the highest attack rate of 10.75 percent, while Ghana follows closely behind.
The study further revealed that, while 45% of CSOs were unaware of national laws and regulations on digital security, CSOs in the region faced a multitude of digital security challenges that threatened their efforts in pursuing their mandates.
WACSI, in a statement released on Thursday, said, “Through concrete evidence and empirical data, the 144-page report demonstrates the terrible nature of digital insecurity among CSOs in West Africa and puts forth actionable recommendations on how to combat the menace.
” The report, a result of extensive research work led by Evans Tindana Awuni, a doctoral researcher at the Willy Brandt School of Public Policy at the University of Erfurt in Germany, examined the state of digital security among 284 CSOs. These organisations were sampled from a pool of over 2000 CSOs across the fifteen ECOWAS countries, plus Cameroon, Chad and Mauritania.
“Among other things, it assessed the most common digital security threats that CSOs in West Africa encounter; the level of exposure of CSOs to these threats and attacks, and their preparedness in tackling them.
“It also shed light on efforts made by states regarding national-level policies mounted to address issues of digital insecurity while also looking into organisational-level digital security policies among the CSOs as well as the major challenges that hinder their ability to respond to these threats”.
The report further revealed that a higher percentage of the victims were community-based organisations and local NGOs compared to international NGOs.
The report also observed that the majority of CSOs did not have adequate knowledge and training on how to protect themselves from digital threats and attacks, adding that limited financial resources prevented many CSOs from allocating a budget for information security.
While uncovering the inadequate preparedness of CSOs towards responding to digital security threats and attacks, the study also found that only a small portion of CSOs [23.6%] had computer and information security policies in place.
Addressing over 100 attendees at the virtual launch, Executive Director of WACSI, Nana Afadzinu, said the Institute, in its 2023–2027 strategy, has a priority of ensuring that CSOs in the region were adequately supported to leverage technology to promote their developmental initiatives.
This, she explained, informed the Institute’s decision to commission the research to gain a holistic appraisal of how digital security affects the work of CSOs in the region.
“While this is critical in informing and shaping the Institute’s work going forward, it constitutes a rich body of knowledge that can inspire a diverse pool of stakeholders to contribute, together with WACSI, to improve the digital landscape to enable the work of CSOs,” she added.
