The WCO organized on the 4th of June the bi-annual meeting with the Virtual Working Group (VWG) on Gender Equality and Diversity (GED). For the first time in the 7-year history of the VWG, the session was interpreted into English and French, allowing more Members to join the same meeting and maximize exchanges. In total, 35 Member administrations participated in the meeting, with over 65 delegates. Participants were provided with an update on the WCO’s work on GED and a summary of the progress in the East and Southern Africa and the Americas regions. Furthermore, Colombia Customs shared its experience in implementing gender equality by showcasing various examples in relation to the prevention of gender-based violence and the use of sex-disaggregated data to form policy decisions. Finally, an update was given of the Plenary session on Advancing Women Empowerment through Authorized Economic Operators (AEO) Programmes: Addressing Gender-Related Barriers in Global Trade, which was part of the last WCO Global AEO Conference.

The meeting elected Ms. Magret Gasa from the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) as the new Chair of the VWG and Ms. Tetiana Korzhynska from the Ukraine Customs Service as the new Vice-Chair. Their mandate takes effect from July 2024 to June 2025.

For further information, please contact capacity.building@wcoomd.org