From 28 May to 1 June 2018, the WCO conducted a Pre-Accreditation Workshop on the Single Window Environment at the WCO Regional Training Centre in Port Louis (Mauritius), with the support of the Finnish ESA Project (Phase II).
The WCO East and Southern Africa (ESA) Region has 22 Members, at least one-third of which are in different phases of building a Single Window environment and at least half of which are planning or have already initiated a feasibility study on the adoption of a Single Window approach. As a result, capacity building needs in the diverse areas and aspects of the Single Window environment are increasing. This upsurge in capacity building is also due to the fact that, as in other WCO regions, many Members are looking to outsource to the private sector not only their information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure development, but also capacity building activities relating to change management.
The WCO plays a prominent role in strengthening Members’ capacities in different areas of the clearance process, and especially on aspects regarding legal gap analyses, business processes and best practices for ICT development. In order to support Members, the WCO may rely on experts from Member Customs administrations having already achieved tangible results in terms of a holistic approach to border management, automation of business processes and management of projects in the area of the Single Window environment, not only to foster the movement of goods across borders but also to enhance the security of cross-border transactions.
Accordingly, the Pre-Accreditation Workshop was designed to identify Customs officials with a wealth of expertise and capable of supporting other Member administrations. The enhanced network of Technical and Operational Advisers (TOAs) in different areas of Single Window implementation, as well as experts with vast knowledge of international standards,WCO tools and instruments, will be involved in WCO activities once the TOAs have completed the full accreditation process. They will play a key role in assisting administrations having embarked on Customs reforms, especially in the area of automation of business processes for Customs and other regulatory agencies.
In total, twelve experts from eight Customs administrations in the WCO’s ESA Region (Madagascar, Mauritius, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe) participated in the Pre-Accreditation Workshop. Four potential TOAs have been identified as Pre-Accredited Experts and will be invited to join the next phase for full accreditation.
Source : wcoomd.org