WCO in cooperation with JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) organized pre-Accreditation Workshop for Technical and Operational Advisors (TOAs) on Risk Management at the WCO Headquarter in Brussels from 30 May to 3 June 2022. This workshop was organized as part of the strategic approach taken by the WCO aiming at expanding the pool of WCO Experts and Technical and Operational Advisors in order to respond to the needs expressed by the WCO Members on these important subjects in a time manner.

The workshop was attended by fifteen participants invited from the five West African Members, namely Benin , Burkina Faso , Cote d’Ivoire , Ghana and Togo. Those participants are part of the "Master Trainer Programme" conducted jointly by the WCO and JICA to develop more sustainable and self-contained training capacity in West Africa that took place from February 2019 to June 2021. The participants took part in a series of training activities jointly conducted by the WCO and JICA to become quality trainers and are now actively contributing to the delivery of training on Risk Management and Intelligence Analysis in West Africa. After their very remarkable achievements as Master Trainers, they were invited to participate in the WCO pre-accreditation workshop and become an asset of the global Customs community through WCO accreditation.

Throughout the workshop, all participants worked intensively and demonstrated their knowledge, skills, techniques and, most importantly, enthusiasm to contribute to the capacity building activities to be made by the WCO in the future. During the workshop, participants were also given an opportunity to pay a courtesy call to the Secretary-General Dr. Kunio Mikuriya. The Secretary-General welcomed the participants, acknowledging their contribution and expressed his expectation that they will contribute to sustainable training delivery in West Africa especially after their success and contribution to the capacity building in the region as Master Trainers. He further encouraged them to become global assets as WCO Technical and Operational Advisors on Risk Management and contribute to the capacity building activities to be conducted by the WCO all over the world.

Successful participants at the workshop will be invited to the next stage of the WCO expert accreditation process, an in-field mission with a WCO lead expert. It is expected that those participants who successfully complete the accreditation process will be added to the expert pool and work together with the WCO for the benefit of Members who require support from the WCO for the improvement of their Risk Management capacity.

For more information, please, contact capacity.building@wcoomd.org.