For the Dossier section of this edition of the magazine, we have selected articles demonstrating how Customs administrations, together with their stakeholders, are collecting data and information to drive modernization efforts.

In the first article, Guatemala Customs explains how it is using WCO Time Release Studies (TRS) as strategic tools for public-private dialogue, institutional performance tracking, and Customs modernization planning. While ensuring active participation of the public and private actors impacted by the studies was challenging, it enabled the Administration to obtain the data and information necessary to inform the development of an action plan for which implementation also involved a wide and representative range of stakeholders. Guatemala Customs also coordinated the first regional TRS along the Pacific Corridor, which led to the drafting and adoption of a regional action plan by Central America Customs administrations and regulatory authorities.

Next is an article by Ukraine Customs outlining how it used the WCO Customs Integrity Perception Survey (CIPS) to measure integrity behaviours and perceptions among Customs officials and private sector stakeholders. Challenges and lessons are highlighted, as well as the priority areas that have been identified and included in their Customs Anti-Corruption Programme 2026-2028.

In the third article, Uruguay Customs also shares its experience with the CIPS, highlighting that the results of the survey will be used to initiate a dialogue with Customs officials and private sector operators through workshops aimed at deepening the analysis of the results and identifying the underlying causes of the perceptions identified. This participatory methodology will also be applied to the various activities comprising their Institutional Integrity Plan such as updating their Code of Ethics or developing regulations related to conflicts of interest.

It is then the turn of the Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA) who made trade facilitation one of the central pillars of its strategic plan in 2025 and shifted its focus toward strengthening the Authority’s performance culture, regarded as key to ensuring successful implementation of the reforms. The article explains how, to establish a robust performance measurement system, the GRA used the WCO Performance Measurement Mechanism (PMM) indicators and measurement processes and how it is managing performance measurement as a strategic asset that supports modernization, enhances performance and improves service delivery across the Authority.

Performance measurement and the WCO PMM is also the focus of the following article by Madagascar Customs. It explains the Administration’s gradual transformation of its approach to performance measurement, moving from descriptiveresults, towards a management culture based on the strategic analysis and use of data.

Greek Customs also shares its experience with the implementation of the PMM in this edition, highlighting that one of the most tangible impacts of the PMM exercise was the quality of the internal dialogue it stimulated, particularly regarding enforcement performance. While Greek Customs already monitor a broad set of national enforcement indicators, PMM Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) introduced a different perspective, shifting the focus from activity volumes to effectiveness, outcomes and proportionality.

The last article of the Dossier is slightly different as it does not focus on the implementation of a WCO tool and approach. Instead, it recounts the journey undertaken by a female Nigerian Customs officer by motorbike from Lagos to Brussels to deepen her understanding of how borders operate and what travellers and traders, especially women, experience when crossing borders. Elements of her research findings have already influenced conversations at the Nigeria Customs Service.