On 24 October 2022, the World Customs Organization (WCO) kicked off its series of regional consultations on WCO modernisation, beginning with the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Thirteen (13) member administrations participated in this fully virtual consultation.
The MENA regional consultation was chaired jointly by the regional Vice-Chair from Jordan and WCO Deputy Secretary General. The discussions focused on seven specific issues, identified from an initial diagnostic prepared by the Secretariat concerning the current internal situation of the WCO and potential improvements for moving towards overall WCO modernisation.
The participants from the MENA region welcomed this initiative and expressed the view that ambition was needed to improve the current processes and make them better adapted to global realities and trends. They agreed that WCO governance would benefit from more standardisation and streamlining of internal protocols, especially concerning human resources (HR) and project management, and the regional entities. They considered that a corporate approach in these areas would strengthen the WCO and enhance its assertiveness, allowing for improved resource management and more balanced negotiations with donors. Overall, they believed that the WCO needed to switch from its role of “organiser” towards the role of proactive “initiator” of projects and activities. Transparency and seamless flow charts were particularly seen as enablers in this context.
In his concluding remarks, the Vice-Chair for the MENA region acknowledged that modernization was a long-term process and welcomed the fact that the WCO had started to address it with the full involvement of the members. The Deputy Secretary General thanked the MENA Region for its fruitful contribution and gave an assurance that the process would remain fully transparent and inclusive for the membership.
The WCO Modernisation Plan is one of the key deliverables specified in the Strategic Plan 2022 to 2025 for responding to the needs identified in the Focus Area of “Governance and accountability”. These regional consultations will be pursued, to present a Modernisation Plan to the Policy Commission and Council in June 2023 for endorsement.