WCO releases new Customs tools to advance gender equality and diversity
Gender equality and diversity has been part of the WCO capacity building agenda since 2013. In continuing its efforts to promote the advancement of gender equality and diversity in Customs, the WCO launched a number of new tools and initiatives in the past year.
E-learning module: “Advancing Gender Equality in Customs”
A new e-learning module on “Advancing gender equality in Customs” has been published on the WCO
According to a WCO survey from 2016, gathering approximately 60 responses from WCO Members, on average around 36% of officers employed by Customs administrations are women, with figures varying from 8% to 60% depending on the country. Moreover, the statistics showed that on average around 30% of ...
WCO steps up efforts to promote gender equality and diversity
Second edition of the Compendium on Gender Equality and Diversity in Customs
Eleven administrations contributed to the second edition of the Compendium on Gender Equality and Diversity in Customs. A short overview of their contributions is provided below.
Argentina ...
German Customs
In Germany, as required by law, the Central Customs Authority and its 41 main Customs offices and 8 Customs investigation offices each have their own Gender Equality Plan, based on a common internal framewo...
Gender equality through equal pay: Iceland Customs takes the lead
Gender equality is now a dominant theme throughout the world, and is being pursued in various ways by international organizations, governments and industry alike. The Customs world is no different as it tackles the issue, bolstered by ‘gender mainstreaming’ bei...
Ensuring gender equality and diversity: Indonesia’s experience
In 2000, the President of Indonesia issued a decree requesting all government agencies to integrate the concerns and experiences of women as well as of men into the planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluation of policies and activities. This strategy, known a...
Gender Equality and Diversity Taskforce
In 2006, the Ministry of Finance decided to create a GED Taskforce to ensure effective implementation of gender mainstreaming. The Taskforce is made up of high-level representatives...
Gender Equality and Diversity: a look into the assessments made with Ghana, Togo and Côte d’Ivoire
Launched in 2013, the Gender Equality Organizational Assessment Tool
In the coming months the Project will also focus on:
A diversity and inclusion approach through traineeships
The Dominican Republic’s Directorate General of Customs (DGA) is striving to be a more diverse and inclusive workplace. The term “diversity” refers to “any attribute people use to tell themselves that another person is different”,[1] such as colour, ...
This idea soon materialized into a programme enabling young individuals to spend 11 weeks within a department of the DGA. By the end of May 2024, the programme had delivered 10 rounds of traineeships, benefiting a total of 621 individuals.
As a starting point, the DGA’s goal was to de...
Gender equality and diversity: latest developments at the WCO
Gender equality and diversity (GED) has been part of the WCO’s capacity building agenda since 2013. In 2020, the WCO adopted the Declaration on Gender Equality and Diversity in Customs, an illustration of Customs administrations’ interest in moving this age...
Gender equality and inclusion, as cross-cutting issues, are based on recognition that people from different backgrounds and of different genders often have different needs, constraints and preferences, and therefore can be affected differently by policies, regulations and working ar...
Finnish Customs enhances the experience of air passengers with specific needs
Going through a Customs inspection at an airport is not an unpleasant experience for most passengers. But for individuals with disabilities, who are travelling with small children or who do not speak the language, it can be a frustrating process.
Nor is it easy for Customs officers, who ha...
To improve the passenger experience, facilitate interaction and ease the work of Customs officers, the Finnish Customs Administration initiated a project with the Finnish Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. After some discussion, it was decided to produce a series of drawi...
An enthusiastic group of organizations responded in the affirmative, including the Finnish Hearing Association, the Finnish Federation of the Visually Impaired, the Guide Dog School, the Finnish Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, the Lahti Institute of Design, the Office ...
Ensuring equality, diversity and inclusion: Ireland’s experience
At Revenue – the name of the Irish Tax and Customs Administration – we are committed to being an inclusive organisation that reflects the diversity of the community that we serve, acknowledges and values diversity, and places equality at the centre of everything we do. This policy supports Re...
Data gathering
One area where we focused some attention in 2021 was in relation to the diversity of our staff. As part of our staff engagement survey programme, for the first time we asked our staff, on an anonymised basi...
Towards the future
Almost 3,000 (44%) of our serving staff have received this training. Human rights and equality training are now firmly embedded in Revenue. Revenue is committed to contributing to the work done in the W...
ZRA steps up efforts to promote gender equality
Even when they are genuinely interested in empowering women to develop their careers, the organizations and individuals who celebrate International Women’s Day on 8 March usually forget all about it as soon as the commemoration is over. The subsequent 12 months see very few – or no – conver...
Forum members meet on a monthly basis to decide on ways to develop the leadership capability of female staff and to raise awareness among all employees on the crucial role gender diversity plays in an organization. One of its first tasks was to develop a questionnaire to understand how female off...
Engaging with partners to advance Gender Equality and Diversity in Customs
In line with the WCO theme for 2024, “Customs Engaging Traditional and New Partners with Purpose”, the WCO Secretariat is increasing its efforts to leverage collaboration with new and existing partners to advance Gender Equality and Diversity (GED) in Customs.
Jonathan Bouchard, Chief of Operations from the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) who co-delivered two workshops in Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria, also describes his support to WCO capacity-building activities as extremely rewarding. “Not only have I met amazing experts from the WCO, but ...
Women in Customs: spotlight on the career of Emilienne Pambo Bouassa
4 April 2018 was a special day in the life of Emilienne Pambo Bouassa. Emilienne, a Customs officer from Gabon, was attending the festivities in Dakar, held by Senegal Customs in the presence of the country’s Minister for the Budget, in commemoration of the anniversary of the country’s indepe...
On joining the RILO for West Africa, one of Emilienne’s specific tasks was to reactivate the RILO for the Central Africa region, the idea being initially to manage the two offices from Dakar. However, the structure that she joined was disjointed and had only one operative, namely a Senegalese p...