As part of its Capacity Building programme, the WCO organized a Leadership and Management Development (LMD) workshop from 11 – 22 September in Maputo, Mozambique. Twenty senior and promising middle managers of the Autoridade Tributária (AT) of Mozambique were inspired to strengthen their leadership and management capacities, as well as their personal effectiveness to drive reforms within their organisation.

In the LMD workshop participants learned that knowing yourself and self-awareness, strategic and people management, outstanding communication skills, negotiation skills and change management are very important to address the organisation’s future challenges. The participating managers represented very different areas and different levels of the organization, including personnel from Customs and Excise Departments. All of them shared their willingness to learn and improve. It became clear that participants will have a very challenging task to change and modernize the management culture of their organization. Especially replacing the friendly but somewhat autocratic way of managing, by a method based on self-management and influencing and impacting others through better understanding of the other, were intensely discussed and reflected upon.

During the LMD Workshop first drafts of the future vision statement of Autoridade Tributária were discussed. It became clear that AT is not only modernizing the revenue collection side, but also ready to improve facilitation, service delivery and internal effectiveness and efficiency. Many of the foundations and requirements to get there were discussed at several moments during the workshop, especially on the topic of integrity.  Participants understood the importance of improving their managerial skills to face the increasingly challenging and changing international trade. They understood very well that it is people who build the organization and that they, as public officials, have a great responsibility for their country and its citizens.

The Director of General Services of the AT, Mr. Venancio Francisco, attended the closing ceremony of the workshop. He stressed the importance of improving leadership and management skills for driving AT’s reforms. During the closing ceremony, the participants shared their personal “take-aways” from the workshop in a very personal way.

This workshop was co-funded by the WCO-Norad Customs Capacity Building Project 2012-17 which aims at delivering technical assistance to seven countries: Timor-Leste, Liberia, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Rwanda, Tanzania and Vietnam.  For more information, please contact the Project Manager, Ms. Andrea Hampton (Andrea.Hampton@wcoomd.org).

For more information on the WCO Leadership and Management Development Programme, please contact Capacity.Building@wcoomd.org