The WCO Fellowship Programme : 30-year success !

11 March 2015

Since 1985, the resounding success of this programme has impacted 140 recipient developing administrations and their 754 middle-managers. The WCO Fellowship Programme has fostered their leadership and management capabilities and subsequently enhanced their administrations’ organizational development. So far, 64 sessions have taken place in English, French and Spanish (the programme in Spanish was introduced since 2010).

Such achievements have been made possible thanks to the generous support of the donor community1 and the growing interest of all beneficiary countries.

2015 marks the 30th Anniversary of the WCO Fellowship programme. This programme’s long lifespan was celebrated on the occasion of the last Capacity Building Committee, along with the recent launch of the WCO Fellowship Alumni Network. With its ambition to capitalize on the fellows’ experience and to compile testimonials and best practices, the Alumni network focuses on the fellows’ career development and aims to create a fellows’ community.

In order to promote the Alumni network, a competition was organized on CLiKC!, collecting video testimonies about past fellows’ experience on returning to their administration. Mr. Victor Perez Rodas, from Guatemala Customs, was declared winner and awarded a prize for the occasion. The picture shows the Representative of the Vice Chair’s Office of the Americas region receiving the award2 on behalf of Mr. Perez from Mr. Erich Kieck, Director Capacity Building.

Happy Birthday WCO Fellowship programme!


1 The current donors of the programme are : the Ministry of Strategy and Finance of the Republic of Korea and the Customs Administrations of Japan, France, Switzerland and the People’s Republic of China. In the past, the contributors were : Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, the Commonwealth, Sweden, Norway and the United Kingdom.

2 The award ceremony was made possible thanks to the support of the Ministry of Strategy and Finance of the Republic of Korea.

Photos