As part of its Capacity Building programme, the WCO organized a Leadership and Management Development (LMD) workshop from 23 November until 4 December 2015. In this special edition of the LMD workshop, 19 female managers of the South Africa Revenue Service (SARS) were inspired to strengthen their leadership and management capacities, as well as their personal effectiveness to lead and drive reforms within SARS.
The workshop brought together a diverse group of female managers, from very experienced senior managers to a few young high potentials, from customs as well as other units of SARS.
SARS requested for this all-women LMD workshop, because it aims for more gender equity and especially more women in executive positions.
Throughout the workshop many of the current and future challenges of SARS were discussed, of which the New Operating Model, development of a Border Management Agency, Integrity and of course Gender Equity, were the most important ones. In addition, a wide range of typical LMD issues were covered such as visioning, strategic management, negotiations, people management, change management and strategic and personal communication. The workshop highlighted the importance of leadership and management skills, as well as the responsibilities of individual managers to drive modernization and change within their own units and departments as well as in the whole of SARS.
For many of the participants, the workshop turned out to be not only practical, but also a real eye opener of individual leadership and management skills. All participants understood well the importance of areas like knowing yourself and self-awareness, managing strategically, people management and change management. The female managers were extremely participative and showed a strong motivation and commitment to contribute to addressing SARS’ future challenges.
The event was funded with the support of the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs through the ESA Project "Building Capacity through Customs Modernization in the East and Southern Africa Region".
For more information on the WCO Leadership and Management Development Programme, please contact Capacity.Building@wcoomd.org.