From 7 to 9 February 2022, the WCO Anti-Corruption and Integrity Promotion (A-CIP) Programme for Customs organized its annual coordinators’ meeting via Zoom, gathering more than 80 representatives from all WCO A-CIP partner administrations.

The workshop aimed at supporting the delivery of WCO A-CIP results, through taking stock of lessons learned and best practices under the Programme over the past year.  A-CIP partner administrations who joined the Programme from the Americas region last year, with funding from Canada, had the opportunity to provide feedback on the conduct of the Customs Integrity Perception Survey (CIPS) in their countries as well as how its results would be utilised. The meetings also included feedback on the remote technical assistance and capacity building activities organised by the WCO, especially in the areas of stakeholder engagement, internal control, and building a culture of integrity – experienced by Members who had joined the Programme earlier, with funding from Norad.

During the last day of the workshop, an overview of future activities related to e-learning activities, data-driven decision-making for integrity and corruption risk management was also provided, all continuing to build the A-CIP Programme’s support to Members implementing the ten key factors of the WCO Revised Arusha Declaration.  Representatives of all partner administrations were also invited to share their ideas and key messages to for all WCO Members to note in their fight against corruption and promotion of integrity.  These will be passed through the WCO Integrity Sub-Committee, taking place in the following days. These messages include the need for Customs to invest in their relationship with the Private Sector, as well as the importance of exploiting opportunities to coordinate more on matters of Integrity.

The WCO Deputy Secretary General, Mr. Ricardo Treviño, and the WCO Capacity Building Director, Mr. Taeil Kang, both pointed the WCO A-CIP Programme has played, not only as a catalyst for change in each A-CIP Partner administration, but also broadening and deepening the WCO’s integrity-related support to all its Members, making in a flagship programme in the fight against corruption. As it was underlined by the representatives of both Programme donors Mr. Per Pharo, Head of the Department for Department for Partnerships and Shared prosperity in the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), and Mr. Patrick Segsworth, Deputy Director of the Anti-Crime Capacity Building Programme (ACCBP) of Global Affairs Canada (GAC), the WCO A-CIP Programme offers an innovative results-based approach for Member administrations committed to the fight against corruption. Mr. Segsworth also added that the WCO’s strong project management practices allowed the Programme to overcome the challenges imposed by the pandemic.

For more information, please, contact capacity.building@wcoomd.org