Capacity building regional structures got together

Brussels, 01 October

On October 1^st, Regional Offices for Capacity Building (ROCBs) and Regional Training Centers (RTCs) of the WCO 6 regions got together at Brussels to discuss common challenges and ways of improving capacity building delivery.

Within the Capacity Building Strategy of the WCO the so so called “Regional approach” plays a big role to achieve its objective. The “Regional approach” is to promote sharing experiences and ideas among neighboring countries to jointly achieve economic growth and social development of the region. The in total 6 ROCBs and 22 RTCs have been playing an important role in this context in their respective regions.

The representatives from ROCBs and RTCs as well as representatives from the regional Vice Chairs offices attended the meeting and exchanged ideas, experiences and the latest development of the respective region.

As a result, participants shared common understanding on a number of key issues to improve the regional approach, such as;

• Regionalization should be further enhanced by the close cooperation among the WCO Secretariat, Regional Vice Chairs, ROCBs and RTCs
• Need to shift to a result-based management culture and adoption of systematic monitoring and evaluation
• Usefulness to continue sharing regional best practices and available materials
• Need for better communication with Members, WCO, donors and other stakeholders;
• Need for better coordination with Regional Economic Communities’ priorities
• Better use of the support and expertise of the regional PICARD network

ROCBs and RTCs are expected to meet again in May next year to make further progress.