In support of its broader Customs Capacity Building agenda, the WCO in partnership with the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) organized a Leadership and Management Development (LMD) Workshop from 25 August until 5 September, 2014 for 19 senior managers. The overall objective of the two-week interactive workshop was to strengthen senior management capacity to lead and drive reforms within ZRA’s Customs modernization agenda.

The workshop brought together a diverse group of senior managers from ZRA’s Customs, domestic tax and corporate services divisions. Throughout the workshop many of the current and future challenges of the ZRA were discussed. A wide range of topics were covered such as translating a leadership attitude into managing change, visioning, strategic management, negotiations, people management and strategic and personal communication. The workshop reinforced the importance of leadership and responsibility at all management levels of the organization to drive modernization and change throughout the ZRA. 

For many of the participants the workshop turned out to be not only practical, but it was a real first step towards a positive change in their individual leadership and management approaches. Feedback included highlights in the areas of self awareness, personal leadership and influencing others. One of the participants wrote “The workshop was able to bring out self awareness that is key in Leadership and Management”.

Both the Commissioner General of ZRA, Mr. Berlin Msiska, as the Commissioner of Customs, Mr. Dingani Banda, expressed the importance of ongoing Leadership and Management Development for ZRA and invited all participants to put their new acquired knowledge and experiences into practice to the benefit of ZRA’s continuing modernization efforts.

The event was funded with the generous support of the World Bank’s Trade Facilitation Facility and the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. For more information on the WCO Leadership and Management Development Programme, please contact Capacity.Building@wcoomd.org.

Group photo: Commissioner General, Commissioner of Customs, WCO facilitator and participants at the WCO LMD Workshop Lusaka, Zambia, August 2014