The WCO is pleased to launch an updated edition of its Gender Equality Organizational Assessment Tool (GEOAT). Originally launched in 2014, this self-assessment tool aims at assisting Customs and Revenue Administrations in assessing their policies and practices both internally (related to, for instance, human resource management) and externally (in their border operations and stakeholder relations) to further incorporate gender equality and diversity on a cross-cutting basis within their administrations.
In 2019, the WCO made some updates to this tool to align it with international standards, including adding new definitions of gender- and diversity-related topics, a chapter on how to implement gender mainstreaming through project management and new cross-cutting indicators.
The 2023 updates were completed under the West Africa Security Project (WASP) framework, a collaboration between the WCO and the Central German Customs Authority funded by the German Federal Foreign Office. The updates include new indicators in the Communication, Integrity, Cross-cutting policies, Recruitment and Hiring and Health Benefits areas. Moreover, a new standalone chapter on Security and Safety has been added, as well as a new template aimed at helping Members use the GEOAT indicators and prepare the elaboration of a dedicated GED action plan. The tool has also been given a new design to make it more appealing to users, and its structure has been improved to make it more user-friendly.
Updating the GEOAT was a collaborative process, during which the Secretariat took into consideration the feedback gathered from WCO-led capacity building activities to Members using the tool, contributions and ideas from the pool of WCO Recognized GED expert candidates and comments from the Virtual Working Group members after the May 2023 meeting.
For questions regarding the update of the GEOAT, please contact capacity.building@wcoomd.org