An On-line pre-Accreditation Workshop for English speaking experts on Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) programmes from the East and South African Region (ESA) took place from 31 January to 4 February 2022, with the financial support of the Government of the United Kingdom via Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

Due to the increasing needs of WCO Members for capacity building support for the development and enhancement of AEO programmes, as well as Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) negotiations and implementation, particularly from the ESA region and other English-speaking Members in Africa, the Secretariat organized this online pre-Accreditation Workshop in the area of AEO as an important key cornerstone of a collective virtual accreditation initiative.

The event was organized with the objective of setting up a pool of English-speaking Technical and Operational Advisors to independently lead, on behalf of the WCO for its Members, capacity building missions in the field of AEO.

Twelve selected candidates from nine Member administrations from the region took part in the Workshop. Mr. Pashupati Nath Pandey of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) of India, a former Senior Technical Officer of the WCO Secretariat, joined the workshop as a co-facilitator. Participants from Botswana, Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe worked intensively and demonstrated their knowledge and skills to deliver expertise and capacity building to develop and enhance AEO programmes. Moreover, the Workshop served as a forum for knowledge and experience sharing, as well as discussing challenges and solutions.

The participants that successfully completed the pre-Accreditation Workshop will be invited to the next stage of the WCO expert accreditation process, including national/regional workshops as a pre-qualified WCO expert in the area of AEO. Fully accredited experts will be play an important role in delivering future WCO AEO capacity building.