Cyber4Dev is delighted to announce that Enrico Calandro has joined our global team as Project Leader.
From June, Enrico will lead on the strategic direction of the project over the next two years, with a number of key objectives within his remit. These include the enhancement and further development of our relationships within our priority and associate partner countries, as well as building upon our work to ensure the advancement of strengthened cybersecurity policy, strategical, and coordination frameworks across our network.
About our new Project Leader.
Over the last fifteen years, Enrico has been working at the intersection of research, international cooperation, digital policy, and development. As a research associate at Research ICT Africa, he has conducted digital policy and regulation research to facilitate
evidence-based and informed policy making for an improved, rights-based and secure access, use and application of digital technologies in Africa and beyond.
As the co-founder and co-director of the Cybersecurity Capacity Centre for Southern Africa at the University of Cape Town, he has led initiatives to deploy the Cyber Maturity Model for Nations and increase cybersecurity awareness in the African region. Often, he is invited to provide expert opinions and research on digital transformation, cybersecurity, and digital policy development in Africa. He has worked as an advisor for the e-Parliament programme of the SADC Parliamentary Forum. More recently, he consulted on digital transformation, cybersecurity, and digital policy in Africa and more broadly in the global South for the UNDP Global Centre for Technology, Innovation, and Sustainable Development, the UNDP Office of the Human Development Report, the UK FCDO, and GIZ. Last but not least, he has been involved in the First Committee of the Security Council of the UN – Open-Ended Working Group on Responsible State Behaviour in Cyberspace, for a rights-based and multistakeholder based approach to cyber policy making at the UN level.
Enrico holds a PhD in Business Administration specialising in telecommunications policy from the Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town. He is a recipient of the Open Technology Fund fellowship on Information controls, the Amy Mahan scholarship award for the advancement of ICT policy in Africa, and the UNDESA fellowship for international cooperation.
Enrico joins us at a crucial phase of the project and we look forward to further enhancing our global partnerships through his leadership, alongside our team of globally recognised experts.
