The 9th Global Meeting of the Heads of ROCBs, RTCs and Vice Chairs’ Offices
Brussels, 27-28 March 2014
Back-to-back with the 5th Capacity Building Committee (CBC) and the 13th Integrity Sub-Committee (ISC), nearly 60 representatives from the Regional Offices for Capacity Building (ROCBs), the Regional Training Centres (RTCs) and the Vice Chairs’ offices met on 27 and 28 March 2014 in Brussels for the 9th Global Meeting of the Heads of ROCBs, RTCs and Vice Chairs’ Offices, to discuss how the regional structures can effectively co-operate with the WCO to deliver support to Members.
A key focus of this year’s meeting was to reaffirm commitment of ROCBs and RTCs to Capacity Building delivery, and their roles in fulfilling their responsibilities, in the areas of the WCO annual Capacity Building needs assessment, donor engagement, as well as identification and maintenance of expertise in the region. In order to form a sound basis of discussion, the WCO Secretariat provided food for thought concerning a to-be-developed WCO Training Diagnostic Tool to among others support RTCs in assisting National Training Centres in their region, and concerning the WCO experts’ situation. An invitation to contribute to the development of and activities related to further WCO instruments and tools such as the People Development Interactive Map on CLiKC!, the Virtual Customs Orientation Academy and a regional training evaluation mechanism was extended to the ROCBs, RTCs and Vice Chairs’ Offices, which was cordially accepted.
The meeting welcomed the analysis made on good practices and challenges of ROCBs and RTCs, which was based on a survey conducted in spring 2013, as a tool to enable regional entities to mutually benefit from each other’s practices, with a view to enhancing the role of respective entities. It also paid attention to the latest development of WCO tools and initiatives from all WCO Directorates and Units that have influence on Capacity Building delivery by regional structures.
Participants to the meeting took this opportunity to discuss issues of common interest within respective regions, with representatives from the Vice Chair’s offices, the ROCBs and RTCs all together present at the same place at the same time, and shared views and experiences of the region with participants across six regions. This provided a good opportunity for inspiring each other and enhancing the dialogue to further strengthen the roles played by regional structures.