The 56th French-speaking Fellowship Programme was launched in Brussels on Monday 23 January 2012.

This Programme forms part of the work to develop the management capacities of Member administrations in support of Phase II of the Columbus Programme. It is designed to provide extremely promising young managers from Member administrations with training in supervisory and management techniques, so as to help them carry out reform and modernization within their respective administrations in a dynamic and sustainable manner.

This latest Programme brings together 14 participants who were welcomed by Erich Kieck, Director of Capacity Building. This introduction serves as a prelude to a series of conferences given by WCO experts, as well as to the seven-day Leadership and Management Development Course, facilitated by experts from the French and the Canadian administrations. The fellows also benefited from a round-table discussion with the Secretary General of the WCO, Kunio Mikuriya, during their first day at the Secretariat.

Participants will remain at WCO Headquarters until 17 February 2012 in order to prepare an in-depth study on a subject of their choice, under the supervision of a Secretariat tutor, and to make recommendations to their respective administrations for possible subsequent implementation. Lastly the participants will spend a fortnight in one of the Programme’s partner administrations (Japan, Belgium, France or Switzerland) to round off their study trip.

The French-speaking Fellowship Programme is funded by the Customs administrations of Japan, France and Switzerland, as well as the WCO and by the CCF Netherlands fund for West and Central Africa.

List of countries participating in the 56th Fellowship Programme:

· Senegal

· Chile

· Mali

· Democratic Republic of the Congo

· Republic of Guinea

· Chad

· Central African Republic

· Cambodia

· Morocco

· Burkina Faso

· Benin

· Togo

· Niger

· Ecuador