The WCO’s Accelerate Trade Facilitation Programme, funded by the United Kingdom’s His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), hosted its first annual National Focal Points Meeting at the WCO Headquarters in Brussels from 11 to 13 June 2024. The Meeting focused on stocktaking the progress made by partner countries from April 2023 to March 2024 and emphasized the importance of peer-to-peer exchange.
Representatives from the Programme’s ten partner countries – Eswatini, The Gambia, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Namibia, Nigeria, The Philippines, South Africa, and Zambia – joined the Meeting. Each country attended with the National Focal Point, who coordinates the overall engagement with the Programme, and one technical Customs officer familiar with one or more areas of (technical) assistance.
The Meeting included a session where the partner countries had the opportunity to share their progress updates with their peers and the Programme team, fostering a shared learning environment by exchanging experiences and lessons learned. In addition, several focus sessions were organized, delving into Time Release Study, Authorized Economic Operators, Coordinated Border Management, Air Cargo streamlining, and Organizational Development (including Gender Equality and Diversity, Project Management, and Leadership and Management Development, among others) in more detail. A session was also held on the importance of measurable impact and in this light the recently launched WCO Performance Measurement Mechanism was discussed.
Throughout the deliberations, the importance of creating an enabling environment for sustainable capacity-building results was underlined – including by ensuring high-level commitment, broad-based buy-in and national ownership. The WCO Deputy Secretary General emphasized the need for longevity and sustainability, noting that it is part of the Programme’s success story, which has been operating in different forms since 2015, as showcased by the experiences of the partner countries. He added that the Programme is at the heart of Customs administrations’ objectives by enhancing a business-enabling environment through increased alignment with international best practices and the World Trade Organization’s Trade Facilitation Agreement.
HMRC Head of Customs International, Megan Shaw, highlighted that the Programme works on a needs-driven basis and offers tailor-made support, which further impacts longevity, a sentiment that the country representatives echoed.
The Programme is aware that reforms take time, and, therefore, it is important to accompany countries on their journey towards a more sustainable, long-term creation of a business-enabling environment, as underscored by Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)’s Aid for Trade Team representative, Alan Chalk. He noted the importance of Customs-to-Customs support to keep the momentum going and appreciated the efforts of the Focal Points to drive reforms forward.
The WCO Accelerate Trade Facilitation Programme envisions organizing the National Focal Points Meeting annually and is looking forward to continuing its engagement with the partner countries.
For more information on the Accelerate Trade Facilitation Programme, please see here.
For more information on WCO capacity building, please contact Capacity.Building@wcoomd.org.