This week our RIA Partner Lead and LAC Co-ordinator Merili Soosalu has been in Ecuador and in reflective mood when looking back the huge strides that she and the Cyber4Dev LAC team have made in the region over the past year. After two years of COVI19 restrictions, 2022 really was a year of re-emergence for our team and an opportunity for us to re-connect with our colleagues in Ecuador.
Let’s take a look back…
What a journey it has been for our partnership in 2022. First of all let’s give a shout out to our fantastic partners in country !
Throughout our engagement in country, we have been honoured by the high level of in-depth commitment that our partners have shown.
Without the co-operation of Ministerio de Telecomunicaciones minister Vianna Maino and her team Félix C. Fabian Iñiguez Antuan Barquet Guillen as well as of Unión Europea en Ecuador Charles-Michel Geurts and Galo A. Nina, we wouldn’t have been able to support Ecuador to achieve such key milestones, which have included:
- A memorandum of Understanding with the Ministerio de Telecomunicaciones (Ecuador) to work as a trusted partner for the Ecuadorian government in cybersecurity issues.
- In April, an IT Risk Assessment training was carried out by Martin Indrek Miller to telecommunications and financial sector.
- Additionally, our M&E expert Enton Dimni delivered a project proposal and management workshop to more than 20 ministries and Ecuadorian public entities, in cooperation with MFA Cristina Camacho , Juan Manuel Escalante sharing EU expertise
- Intensive advisory, training and policy support has led to the formulation of Ecuador’s first National Cyber Security Strategy, 2022 – 2025, which was launched in June and formally adopted in August. This strategy follows all European Union best practices and presents a vision of Ecuador which is inclusive and which is capable of withstanding cyber attacks, and continuing to respect human rights.
- Our experts Kadri Kaska, Elsa Neeme and Liis Rebane worked together with Minister Vianna Maino’s team in MINTEL and with CICTE/OAS ORLANDO GARCES Mariana Jaramillo to further develop stakeholder engagement in relation to the strategy, with the aim of ensuring wide ranging adoption across society.
- In line with of the newly adopted strategy, important advisory work was carried out, to advise on the creation of a national CERT, as well as developing the capacity of incident response teams with Klaid Mägi, Enton Dimni, Martin Undusk and in introducing CIIP critical infrastructure protection methodology to the community with Priit Kaup and Perit Kirkmann-Raave.
- In 2022, we reached the milestone of over 1,200 individuals being trained across a number of disciplines, by Cyber4Dev since its start of activities in Ecuador in 2020.
- Cyber4Dev supported Cristina Camacho’s successful application to the EU CyberDirect EU:CD Fellowship Programme
- In September, we were delighted to finally welcome 15 distinguished Ecuadorian delegates to Tallinn, for our long awaited study visit. During the week visit, which hosted guests from MINTEL, Ministerio del Interior, MFA, EU Delegation, ECUCERT and CEDIA, we had received a great overview of the Estonian journey in cyber security and digitalisation and met with all important national stakeholders, not least our partners Riigi Infosüsteemi Amet // Estonian Information System Authority.
