The WACAM Project, funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), aims to contribute to ongoing modernization efforts of customs administrations in West Africa. The WACAM Project is a direct response to priority development needs identified by Customs Administrations in the region. Through regional workshops and national support missions, the project aims to present best practices in various areas of strategic management and is delivering capacity building support to address specific needs in the field of Human Resource Management, Stakeholder Relations and Resource Mobilization.

During the month of October 2012, the WACAM Project delivered two regional workshops on Resource Mobilization. The workshops aimed to heighten awareness on the importance of resource mobilization in the context of customs modernization but also on tools and techniques available to successfully carry out resource mobilization initiatives. The workshop covered key topics, which included donor mapping and engagement, business case preparation and formulation of project proposals according to recognized best practices.

The first regional workshop was held in French in Ouagadougou from 08^th to 12^th of October 2012 with the support of the WCO WCA Regional Training Center in Ouagadougou and the Customs Administration of Burkina Faso. It gathered 19 carefully selected participants from Benin, Burkina Faso, Cap Vert, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinee Conakry, Guinee Bissau, Mali, Senegal and Togo. The second regional workshop was held in English in Abuja from 15^th to 19^th of October 2012 with the support of the WCO WCA Regional Training Center in Abuja and the Customs Administrations of Nigeria. It gathered 9 carefully selected participants from The Gambia, Ghana, Liberia and Nigeria.

Both regional workshops were very well received by the participants and some of them have already enquired about the modalities to receive national support in the field of resource mobilization.

Based on this positive experience in Ouagadougou and Abuja, the WACAM Project is now looking forward to the delivery of its next regional workshops in the field of Stakeholder Relations in the course of November 2012 in Sierra Leone (English-speaking countries) and Ivory Coast (French-Speaking countries).