In collaboration with UN Women, the WCO delivered a seminar targeting small and medium size businesses, and women entrepreneurs in particular, in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire on 8 - 9 July 2024. The seminar was organized under the framework of the West Africa Security Project (WASP) component on gender equality, a partnership between the WCO and the German Central Customs Authority, funded by the German Federal Foreign Office.

The two-day seminar provided an opportunity for participants to enhance their knowledge on the links between trade facilitation and gender, the opportunities generated by the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) and the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), as well as on Customs import and export procedures.

Another key component of the seminar was the issue of security, which was addressed from different angles, from the importance of having women officers at the borders, through preventing harassment and gender-based violence, the risks of illicit and harmful goods and the need to meet certain standards, as well as the importance of having gender responsive and inclusive infrastructure at the border. Participants were also briefed on the role of Customs in collecting revenue, facilitating trade, ensuring safety, and protecting the society.

The speakers included expert trainers from Côte d’Ivoire Customs, from the AfCFTA Secretariat in Abidjan as well as from Export Côte d’Ivoire. In addition, Customs representatives from Benin and Togo shared their experiences on how they were working to facilitate trade and ensure safety from a gender-responsive perspective. The WCO presented its tools and initiatives promoting gender equality and diversity (GED), and emphasized specifically the Principles part of the Gender Equality Organizational Assessment Tool (GEOAT) relevant to SMEs and women traders (Principle 4 on Preventing Gender Based Violence and Harassment, Principle 5 on Border Operations and Stakeholder Relations and Principle 6 on Security and Safety).  

The seminar gathered more than 80 participants and provided an opportunity for Customs to listen to the stakeholders’ specific needs and concerns. As an outcome of the discussions, recommendations were identified to reinforce the collaboration between Côte d’Ivoire Customs and these stakeholder groups going forward.

The event fulfills one of the key activities, namely, reinforcing the collaboration with external stakeholders to advance GED, outlined in the Côte d’Ivoire GED action plan. The latter has been developed through assistance provided earlier under the WASP.

For more information about this activity and the overall WCO’s work on GED, please contact capacity.building@wcoomd.org.