From 1 to 4 December 2020 , the WCO successfully held a Virtual Regional Workshop on Organizational Performance Measurement for the WCO Asia/Pacific Region , in cooperation with the Asia/Pacific Regional Office for Capacity Building (ROCB A/P) and with the support of the CCF Japan. This important activity, opened by the WCO Deputy Secretary General, Mr. Ricardo Treviño, gathered over 46 registered participants both working in the field of strategic planning and implementation and field experts in 22 WCO Member administrations. Mr. Ricardo Treviño drew the attention of the participants to the recent WCO initiative for the establishment of a WCO Performance Measurement Mechanism (PMM). He said “The ultimate goal of the WCO Performance Measurement Mechanism is to provide a politically recognized evidence-based, scored assessment that can be used to improve the Customs performance while making an impact on the economic development and business environment, at national and international level.”
In his welcoming speech, Mr. ARAMAKI Hidetoshi (Director for International Technical Cooperation, Customs and Tariff Bureau, Ministry of Finance Japan) highlighted the importance of the development of a comprehensive performance measurement mechanism in order to raise Customs accountability to the policy makers, the private sector and general public.
During this event, Members had the opportunity to exchange experiences and views on performance measurement, including its role for strategic decision-making, development of key performance indicators (KPIs) and data collection. Furthermore, the participants took part in the ongoing efforts to develop the PMM, providing positive feedback on its current design and elaborating it further through group exercises.
Some of the lessons learned include observing the different level of maturity of the Customs Administrations in the establishment of a performance measurement system; the necessity to balance the functionality, legitimacy and rigor of the evaluation, as well as to assure its sustainability through necessary adaptation and learning, making it a living WCO mechanism to assist the dynamic needs of strategic decision-making. Overall, the engagement of the participants resulted in a successful workshop and provided important insights that will help the WCO Secretariat fulfill its endeavor of developing this PMM for the benefit of its 183 Members.