PARFID – Regional Support Project for Training Tax and Customs Officials
Objective
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€5mBUDGET
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04/01/2021PROJECT START
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36 monthsDURATION
PARFID: Improving training systems for tax and customs officials
The mission of the Regional Support Project for Training Tax and Customs Officials (PARFID) is to help improve the initial and in-service training systems of the customs and tax administrations in 14 Member States of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) and Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC). Its objective is to contribute to sustainably strengthening their capacity to mobilise domestic public resources.
PARFID follows on from a study requested by the WAEMU Commission in 2019. It was financed by AFD and conducted by Expertise France and aimed to conduct a mapping of the existing training systems and propose avenues for improvement in the subregion.
It involves all the stakeholders in training for tax and customs administrations in the 14 countries of operation. The objective is to bring about permanent changes by helping improve training systems in the subregion and improving the performance of tax and customs administrations over the long term in the management of their training systems. Indeed, supporting the capacities of tax and customs administrations is a common strategic issue for all the countries in the subregion in order to increase the mobilisation of their resources.
Four areas of operation
PARFID is based on four components:
1) Producing a study on the training needs of tax and customs officials in CEMAC Member States
This component aims to adopt an operational action plan, in synergy with the activities targeting training of the regional PARFID project target.
2) Supporting the modernisation of initial training for tax officials
This component contributes to adapting initial vocational training to the practices of activities in the tax sector, updating content and skills and integrating issues related to the new challenges of the economy (digitalisation and modern procedures for tax collection or the tax base, for example).
The project also promotes the establishment of a harmonised initial training base at regional level for all categories of officials, supported by a sustainable updating and evaluation system.
3) Promoting the strengthening of in-service training at regional level
This component contributes to strengthening the existing thematic range of provision and promotes the creation of specialised programmes for activities at regional level (asset taxation, management, cross-functional activities).
4) Supporting the management of training
This component supports capacity building for officials and services responsible for managing training and contributes to improving human resources functions and managerial skills. It aims to sustainably strengthen training systems, by supplementing them with the consolidation of a regional pool of officials trained as trainers, fostering the creation of networks of professionals in training activities and human resources management and promoting modern teaching methods (e-learning, digital modules, self-training).