Planning meeting with the Office of the Vice-Chair for East and Southern Africa, Kampala, Uganda
October 2009
The 14th Annual Conference of the East and Southern Africa (ESA) Governing Council held in Harare (Zimbabwe) on 14 and 15 May 2009 tasked the Regional Office for Capacity Building (ROCB) and the Office of the Vice-Chair with drafting a comprehensive regional implementation plan.
This one-year implementation plan is based on the ESA Strategy, the overall goal of which is to contribute to the region’s economic growth through trade, security and social protection. This will be achieved by building professional Customs administrations throughout the region which offer a fair, efficient and effective revenue collection and border management service.
One of the specific objectives of this planning meeting was to draw up a detailed regional action plan based on the approved Regional Strategy. During the three-day Workshop, the WCO provided support with this exercise to the Head of the ROCB and representatives of the Office of the Vice-Chair.
A draft one-year action plan focusing on co-operation between Member states as well as training and technical assistance needs in the region was developed for submission to the region’s Members, with a view to adoption.
Given that a new Fund Manager has been appointed for the SIDA Sub-Saharan Fund and that the meeting took place in the Regional Programme Manager’s office in Kampala, this mission was also an opportunity for the Regional Programme Manager for the East African Community (EAC) region and the newly appointed Fund Manager to hold their first official meeting.
Discussions focused essentially on future co-operation in the areas of economic reporting, regional EAC action plan reporting and other planning matters.
On this occasion, an agreement was also reached between the Regional Programme Manager and WCO representatives (the Regional Development Manager and the Fund Manager) on the approach towards producing three draft documents covering regional policies in the areas of Post-Clearance Audit, Risk Management and Authorized Economic Operators.