Recognizing the strategic importance of human resources in the process of creating organizational values, the NRA pays particular importance to the modernization of its Human Resources (HR) system.

As such, following the recommendations of the 2018 Mercator Programme Diagnostic Report for the NRA, the WCO delivered a capacity building mission to design and integrate Human Resource Management (HRM) competency-based approach tools in the NRA’s HR system. The mission was held in Freetown, Sierra Leone on the 25 February to 1 March 2019 and delivered under the HMRC-WCO-UNCTAD Programme funded by the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) via Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) of the United Kingdom, under the auspices of the WCO Mercator Programme.

The main objective of this mission was to carry out a diagnostic of the current situation of HRM at the NRA using the WCO HR diagnostic tool. In addition, the mission aimed at strengthening the capacity of the HR modernization team to develop competency-based approach tools (i.e. a jobs catalogue, a competency framework, a competency dictionary and job descriptions). These will all form the basis of the new HR system at the NRA. This mission was conducted with the support of a pre-accredited HR expert from Liberia in order to share experiences from the region.

The mission concluded with a meeting with the Commissioner General and HRM working group members to present the results of the diagnostic, the work plan and the various tools developed during the mission using the competency approach. The WCO looks forward to continue its collaboration with the NRA under the framework of the tailor-made track of the Mercator Programme.