Extending the Women in International Peace and Security in Cyberspace Fellowship Program to maintain gender parity at OEWG meetings The Women in International Peace and Security in Cyberspace Fellowship program funded the travel of 30-35 women diplomats to attend the UN OEWG meeting in February 2020, before the program went virtual because of the COVID crisis. This program allowed gender parity for the first time in a First Committee process, a fact that was noted by the UN OEWG chair. This program has been hailed as a major success that can be expanded on. Donors, which now include the US in addition to the initial five donors, are working on a revamped and expanded program, which we hope will build on the positive results achieved at the 2019-21 OEWG. Advancing gender equality via cyber capacity building In addition to the type of capacity building of diplomats outlined above, several States have suggested that the OEWG could play a useful role in identifying cyber capacity building gaps. States could then work with organizations such as the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise (GFCE) to coordinate existing and future capacity building efforts to address some of those gaps. One such gap could be implementing capacity building projects in a way that addresses the gender dimensions of cyber security. This could include specific elements such as assisting States in: • • • • • mainstreaming gender considerations into cyber incident response and cyber legal framework regimes; designing responses to cyber incidents in a manner that takes into consideration the gendered impacts of these incidents; factoring in gender considerations into project design, including when it comes to cybersecurity standards and threat modelling; building cybersecurity skills and expertise beyond STEM, by expanding into areas such as communications, ethics and legal governance; and building a community of cyber incident responders that is more diverse, i.e. that includes a greater participation of women and members of the LGBTQ community. Promoting gender-sensitive capacity building could thus become a key objective of the OEWG’s discussions on cyber capacity building. Gender considerations could also be taken into account when determining which capacity building projects to fund in the context of the OEWG. This would serve as an incentive for implementing organizations to build in a gender component to their proposed projects. OEWG session on gender Rather than addressing the gender dimensions of cyber security via side events, as was done on the margins of the 2019-21 OEWG, the 2021-25 OEWG could have a session dedicated to this issue during one of the OEWG’s regular substantive meetings. Experts on gender and cyber security from government, civil society and the private sector could be invited to provide insights and formulate concrete recommendations on this issue. Subtopics to discuss could include: • • • gender-related threats, including how internet shutdowns and data breaches affect women and the LGBT community differently; gender mainstreaming in national cyber strategies; taking gender into account when implementing the 2015 GGE norms; and