Manager and Head of Technical Support and Consultancy; and Acting Head of Membership and Communications at the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization (CTO).

Dr Martin Koyabe is the Manager and Head of Technical Support and Consultancy; and Acting Head of Membership and Communications at the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization (CTO). He has over 20 years experience in ICT innovation, research and development. He holds a PhD in Communications Engineering and has been involved in various ICT projects mainly in Europe, US, Caribbean, Asia Pacific and Africa.

He has held several positions both in the telecommunication sector and academia. Before joining the CTO, he was a senior researcher/technical lead with British Telecommunications (BT) for over 10 years. While at BT, he worked on various major projects including, BT’s 21st Century Next Generation Network, developing ICT security solutions, policies and strategies for BT’s lines of business. He was part of the technical team at BT that worked on Future Internet Architecture, and promoted the Development of Global Good Practice for Mitigating Denial-of-Service (DoS) over the Internet. He is also a technical expert for the European Commission (EC), World Bank, UN and the ITU.

Martin has led the development of various national strategies on Cybersecurity, Broadband, Regulation and ICT for a number of countries and organisations. He led the CTO team in assisting Botswana, Cameroon, Uganda, Fiji, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Senegal, Eswatini (Swaziland) and Bermuda to develop their National Cybersecurity Strategies. Most notably is his recent contribution towards development of a National Cybersecurity Strategy Reference Toolkit (yet to be published) in collaboration with other implementing partners, including the ITU.

He is also part of the team that undertook a Strategic Planning initiative for Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia (CRAN) and developed the ICT Strategy for the Ministry of Transport and Communications, Botswana. He was also one of the technical experts that developed the legislative framework for the unbundling of Swaziland Post & Telecommunications Corporation (SPTC); and currently completing the development of the Strategic Plan for Swaziland Communications Commission in Eswatini (Swaziland).