The first Accreditation Workshop for Technical and Operational Advisors on Non-Intrusive Inspection (NII) of Equipment was held from 6 to 10 November 2017 at the WCO Headquarters in Brussels, with the support of CCF/Japan. Fourteen pre-selected candidates representing all of the WCO six regions participated in the bilingual workshop (English and French). Participants were from the Customs Administrations of Algeria, Australia, Chile, Denmark, Finland, France, Iran, Jamaica, Latvia, Nigeria, Russian Federation, Tunisia, and Uganda participated in the programme.

This Workshop was organized with the aim of setting up a pool of NII Technical and Operational Advisers capable of independently leading training and technical assistance activities on behalf of the WCO on NII related issues such as procurement, maintenance, radiation safety, risk management, NII-related Customs processes and image analysis.

Throughout the Workshop, all participants worked intensively and demonstrated their knowledge, skills, techniques and, most importantly, enthusiasm to contribute to the WCO capacity building activities in the future. Successful participants to the Workshop will be invited to the next stage of the WCO expert accreditation process, an in-field mission with a WCO lead expert. Fully accredited experts will be expected to conduct future WCO capacity building activities.