Launched in January 2019, the Anti-Corruption and Integrity Promotion (A-CIP) Programme responds to the recognised high costs of corruption in customs. The Programme aims at improving the business environment for cross-border trade in selected WCO member countries by making changes to the operational and administrative context that restricts corrupt behavior and promotes good governance in customs operations and administration. These changes are guided by and in line with the ten key factors of the Revised Arusha Declaration Concerning Good Governance and Integrity in Customs. The WCO Revised Arusha Declaration provides customs administrations with a practical approach for anti-corruption policies as stipulated in the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) Article 5. The Declaration also aligns with UNCAC Articles 7 (Public Sector), 8 (Codes of Conduct for Public Officials), 10 (Public reporting), and encompasses elements of a number of other Articles of the Convention relating to transparency and engagement with the private sector. The A-CIP Programme also acts as an important delivery mechanism for WCO members to realise commitments under UNCAC Chapter VI (Technical Assistance and information Exchange).
With initial financing from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), the A-CIP Programme currently supports 17 beneficiary countries under a bilateral component.
The bilateral component involves delivery of WCO technical assistance and capacity building to help selected WCO member countries undertaking measures to implement priority areas of the Revised Arusha Declaration. For each administration, a multi-annual action plan is developed along with clear benchmarks and performance measurement criteria.
The Programme also contains a multilateral component to create an enabling environment for WCO Members to implement A-CIP measures by leveraging regional and international initiatives in parallel, and to build WCO instruments and tools.
The Programme design has taken into account lessons learned from previous WCO programmes as well as global experiences and insights into the challenges for technical assistance and capacity building in the fight against corruption. In particular, A-CIP activities leverage collective action, performance measurement and data analysis as implementation principles for achieving results.
Specific attention has also been paid to take into account parallel change activities both in the participating countries as well as globally, in order to ensure that A-CIP delivers results that complement ongoing and deeper reforms. The actions aim to deliver specific outcomes for each participating country over a period of five years.
The A-CIP Programme complements other WCO initiatives. One of them is the WCO Mercator Programme, which also creates roadmaps and offers a results-based approach to help customs administrations implement relevant national commitments under the World Trade Organization’s Trade Facilitation Agreement (WTO TFA). Many of the TFA’s articles call for transparency and predictability, promoting integrity and closing opportunities for corruption. The A-CIP Programme is building on the Mercator Programme’s model and galvanising activity and leading efforts to improve governance and integrity in customs.
More WCO members have shown interest in being part of the Programme, and A-CIP is open to inclusion of support from other donors which could enable more WCO Members to benefit from the Programme’s targeted technical assistance and capacity building.
For more details, please contact capacity.building@wcoomd.org