Who we are
The UK-South East Asia Women in Cyber Fellowship is a flagship initiative launched in 2024 as part of the Indo-Pacific Cyber Programme (IPCP), a UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) initiative to build cyber capacity across the Indo-Pacific region.
This Fellowship connects and empowers women who are leaders in cyber security across South East Asia, providing them with a collaborative platform to enhance their influence and impact.
This Fellowship connects and empowers women who are leaders in cyber security across South East Asia, providing them with a collaborative platform to enhance their influence and impact
Through tailored group projects, we support Delegates in developing their perspectives and leadership skills, creating a “safe space” for shared experiences, ambition setting, and personal development.
Our Fellowship program includes mentorship opportunities, allowing Delegates to gain valuable insights and support as they advance in the cyber sector. This collaborative effort aims to foster a stronger, more diverse, and resilient cyber security ecosystem in the Indo-Pacific region.
How we work:
Through tailored group projects, we tackle current cyber security issues while also supporting our delegates in developing their perspectives and leadership skills, creating a “safe space” for sharing experiences, ambition setting, and personal development.
Our Fellowship program includes mentorship and guest speaker sessions, allowing delegates to gain valuable insights and support as they advance in the cyber sector. This collaborative environment aims to foster a stronger, more diverse, and resilient cyber security ecosystem in the Indo-Pacific region.
Our Focus
With a focus on advancing cyber resilience, our consortium is dedicated to building capacity in the following key areas:
Regional Partnerships
National Threat Detection and Response
Critical National Infrastructure Resilience
Cyber Skills and Awareness
Short-Term Interventions
Our Background
and Purpose
In the Indo-Pacific region, research shows women are under-represented in public life and decision-making at the political level and in the private sector; when women attempt to enter these spaces they can be targeted by gender-based violence or face other obstacles because of gender-based discrimination. Despite the need to include women and girls’ experiences online and their rights to participate, in Asia and the Pacific, women account for under 10% of the cyber security workforce. This creates a ‘vicious circle’ whereby cyber security is (and is regarded as) a male domain – being male is considered the norm and therefore cyber security is designed around male perspectives and experiences. This deters women and girls from entering the cyber security field, prevents their retention and visibility, and perpetuates the predominantly male approach to cyber security.
Cyber can be a significant factor in both enabling and preventing progress on gender equality, as set out in the UK National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security. The UK prioritises cyber as a significant space for promoting and enable gender diversity and equality, while working to prevent and dismantle gender-based harms. To this end, the UK set an ambition to enable, promote and support meaningful participation of female leaders in cyber security across the South East Asia region.
Our First Year
The Fellowship brought together 18 delegates from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Brunei. In January 2024 the British High Commission Singapore hosted the inaugural Fellowship Launch Event featuring guest speakers, interactive workshops, and opportunities for delegates to form valuable connections in-person. Over the year the delegates continued to connect virtually, in meetups with their small project groups and mentors, 8 virtual events featuring 13 guest speakers, and a regular newsletter with articles from all of our delegates and 12 external guest writers. In October we brought the delegates to Singapore International Cyber Week and GovWare, where they connected with notable senior leaders from the UK and internationally, in a schedule of closed door workshops and discussions arranged exclusively for the Fellowship.
The Indo-Pacific
Cyber Programme
The Fellowship was created by the Indo-Pacific Cyber Programme, which is delivered as part of the UK’s Integrated Security Fund (UKISF), a UK government-wide fund that addresses the highest-priority threats to UK national security, at home and abroad. The Indo-Pacific Cyber Programme focuses on building regional partnerships, national threat detection and response, critical national infrastructure resilience, cyber skills and awareness, and tactical collaborations and short term interventions, and this is delivered by a consortium of cyber security experts led by BAE Systems and involving RUSI, TAG International, DAI, India Future Foundation, and ORB.
Fellowship Delegate
The network of women is fabulous, all with very interesting perspectives and insights
