Single Window Systems
In the OIC Member States
5
1. Conceptual Framework
In the past 15 years many governments worldwide have implemented Single Window (SW)
initiatives to simplify import and export and transport processes. These Single Window
initiatives do not follow the same model and each Single Window is set up in a different way.
They vary on organisational and technological aspects and strategic design, but the initiatives
follow the same conceptual ideas and approaches.
1.1. The Single Window Concept
The term Single Window for Trade is used to describe a variety of platforms for the exchange of
electronic information between traders, government agencies, and commercial service
providers. There is no unique model of a Single Window, and different organisations have
adopted their own definition - see – to describe the concept. The common elements of
these definitions are:
A Single Window is a i) Single entry point, ii) for the lodgement of standardized information, iii)
related to import, export and transit related formalities.
Box 1: Definitions of Single Windows for Trade
UNECE Recommendation No 333 defines a Single Window for Trade as follows: “... a facility that
allows parties involved in trade and transport to lodge standardized information and documents
with a single entry point to fulfil all import, export, and transit related-related regulatory
requirements.”
The World Customs Organisations (WCO) defines a Single Window as: “... a cross border,
‘intelligent’, and facility that allows parties involved in trade and transport to lodge standardized
information, mainly electronic, with a single entry point to fulfil all import, export and transit
related regulatory requirements.”4
The African Alliance for E-commerce (AACE) defines a SW as “... a national or regional system
mainly built on a computer platform initiated by a Government or an ad hoc entity to facilitate
the performance of import, export or transit-related formalities, by offering a single point of
submission of standardized data and documents in a bid to fulfil official requirements and
facilitate logistics.5 ”
3 UNECE, Recommendation and Guidelines Establishing A Single Window. Recommendation 33 (New York and Geneva:
United Nations, 2005 (ECE/TRADE/352)
4 WCO, The Single Window Concept. The World Custom Organization Perspective available at
accessed January 2017)
5 AACE, Single Window Guide for Africa (2013) under AAC accessed January
2017)