The 68th WCO Fellowship Programme, intended for French-speakers, was launched in Brussels on Monday 25 January 2016.
This Programme forms part of the WCO’s work to develop the management capacities of Member administrations in support of Customs Reform and Modernization programmes. It is designed to provide extremely promising young managers from Member administrations with access to and further familiarization with WCO and international standards, tools and instruments, but also 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 15 participants who were welcomed by Mr. Ernani Checcucci, Director Capacity Building. This introduction serves as a prelude to a series of conferences given by WCO experts, as well as to the eight-day Leadership and Management Development Workshop, facilitated by three experts, from Gabon, France and the other from the WCO Secretariat. The fellows also benefited from a round-table discussion with Mr. Kunio Mikuriya, Secretary General of the WCO, on their first day at the Secretariat.
The participants will remain at WCO Headquarters until 19 February 2016 in order to prepare an in-depth study on a technical 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 (France, Switzerland, Japan or the Republic of Korea) to round off their study trip.
The French-speaking Fellowship Programme is funded by the Customs Administration of France, the Customs Administration of Switzerland, the Customs Administration of Japan and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea.
List of 13 countries participating in the 68th Fellowship Programme: Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Madagascar, Tunisia, Burundi, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Central African Republic, Djibouti, Rwanda and Togo.