Israel signed an agreement on Monday with the World Bank that is aimed to support developing countries with cybersecurity.
By joining the Digital Development Partnership, Israel, along with other donors, will promote through this Multi-Donor Trust Fund the digitalization and cybersecurity in the developing world.
For the first time, the Jewish state will join hands with the development community in promoting a strategic sector and sit around the table with key players in the arena, such as Japan, the United Kingdom, Finland, Denmark and Norway, as well as with major entities such as GSMA.
The World Bank will provide, through Israel’s contribution, technical assistance to countries in Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe and Asia, and will build the foundation for their preparedness for challenges in cyberspace.
Israel’s Ministry of Economy and Industry and the Israel National Cyber Directorate will contribute $1 million in the Digital Development Partnership for various outputs of knowledge-sharing, awareness-raising and capacity-building, per the agreement.
Israel will be part of the fund’s other efforts to develop digital technologies and cyberspace in developing countries. It will share its knowledge and experience in raising the readiness and resilience of critical sectors for cyber events, and will make its academics and entrepreneurs available for the development needs.
“With the increase in the development and in the use of digital tools in developing countries, cyber protection is a central and essential component in building public confidence in these tools and in the economic stability of the countries that rely on them,” said Israel’s Trade Commissioner Ohad Cohen. “The World Bank Group, and the DDP as its pro-active arm in the digital arena, is an important channel to expand the global cyber protection and extend the Israeli expertise to new places that are in need of it. The end goal of this collaboration is to mainstream cyber protection in any development initiative that is using digital space as a platform to close the development gap in the world.”
