Tetyana Korzhynska, an official from the Department of Specialized Training and Cynological Support of the State Customs Service of Ukraine (hereinafter – DSTCS), who holds the position of Chairperson of the World Customs Organization’s Virtual Working Group on Gender Equality and Diversity in Customs (VWG GED), moderated the Group’s regular meeting. The event began with an opening speech by the WCO Deputy Secretary General, Ricardo Treviño Chapa, who emphasized the importance of the gender component for the global Customs community.

 The event was attended by over 70 participants from the Customs administrations of 44 countries worldwide: Argentina, Australia, Azerbaijan, Benin, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, Côte d’Ivoire, Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, European Union, Gambia, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kosovo, Lesotho, Maldives, Mali, Mexico, Moldova, Morocco, Mauritius, Namibia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Peru, Poland, Senegal, South Africa, Sweden, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and Zambia, as well as representatives of the WCO Secretariat and the WCO Regional Offices for Capacity Building in the Asia-Pacific and West-Central Africa regions.

Within the framework of the agenda, presentations were heard from the WMO Secretariat Technical Officers: Johanna Tornstorm, who presented the latest WMO developments on promoting Gender and Diversity (G&D) issues; and Maka Khvedelidze, who presented the gender component within the framework of the WMO Performance Measurement Mechanism.

In addition, the customs administrations of Brazil, Zambia, and Mauritius shared their experience in gender mainstreaming.