According to an article published in Daily News, International shipping transports more than 80 percent of global trade to peoples and communities all over the world.
Cost-effective option
Shipping is the most efficient and cost-effective method of international transportation for most goods; it provides a dependable, low-cost means of transporting goods globally, facilitating commerce and helping to create prosperity among nations and peoples.
It is much more cost-effective than air freight (which is sometimes essential for perishables) and also ground freight such as truck and train. Even for landlocked countries, it is often easier to import goods to the nearest coastal destination of another country and transport them by ground thereafter.
The world relies on a safe, secure and efficient international shipping industry, which is an essential component of any program for future sustainable green economic growth in a sustainable manner. Hence the United Nations will celebrate the World Maritime Day tomorrow (September 26).
Women in the Maritime Community
This year’s theme is “Women in the Maritime Community”. Today, women represent only two percent of the world’s 1.2 million seafarers and 94 percent of female seafarers are working in the cruise industry. In recent decades, the word “seafarer” has replaced the word “seaman” in the male-dominated maritime industry. Earlier the term “seaman” was widely used to describe anyone working at sea.
Within this historically male-dominated shipping industry, the 70-year-old International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has been making a concerted effort to help the industry move forward and support women to achieve a representation that is in keeping with twenty-first-century expectations.
Empowering women
IMO believes that empowering women fuels thriving economies, spurs productivity and growth, and benefits every stakeholder in the global maritime community. IMO Secretary-General Kitack Lim said that the maritime industry needs more women because of the quality work they provide. He underscored that women are a very important source of human resources, which would make for safer sea travel. Through its Women in Maritime gender equality and capacity-building programme IMO encourages its Member States to enable women to train alongside men in their maritime institutes and so acquire the high level of competence that the maritime industry demands.
Promoting gender equality
IMO supports gender equality and the empowerment of women through gender-specific fellowships; by facilitating access to high-level technical training for women in the maritime sector in developing countries; and creating the environment in which women are identified and selected for career development opportunities in maritime administrations, ports, and maritime training institutes.
About IMO’s gender programme
IMO’s gender programme was initiated in 1988. At that time, only a few maritime training institutes opened their doors to female students. Since then, IMO’s gender and capacity-building programme have helped put in place an institutional framework to incorporate a gender dimension into IMO’s policies and procedures. This has supported access to maritime training and employment opportunities for women in the maritime sector. The Women’s International Shipping & Trading Association (WISTA) has also launched a pledge to increase diversity in maritime firms.
Recognition of women’s contribution to the maritime sector
This year’s theme provides an opportunity to raise awareness of the importance of gender equality, in line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, and to highlight the important – yet under-utilized – contribution of women within the maritime sector.
It also allows stakeholders the opportunity to work towards achieving the SDGs, particularly SDG Number 5, to foster an environment in which women are identified and selected for career development opportunities in maritime administrations, ports, and maritime training institutes and to encourage more conversation for gender equality in the maritime space.
Empowering women fuels thriving economies across the world, spurs growth and development, and benefits everyone working in the global maritime community in the drive towards safe, secure, clean and sustainable shipping.
International Women Seafarers Foundation (IWSF)
In 2017, to help young women pursuing a career at sea, Captain Menon established the International Women Seafarers Foundation (IWSF). Even though today the doors of maritime training institutes are open to women, many of them still face challenges finding employment. IWSF helps young female graduates get on a path towards a career at sea. The Foundation is also supporting women while they are out at sea. Captain Menon and her IWSF colleagues consult them before they go on board, making sure they are mentally prepared for months of social isolation and being one of the few – if not the only – female in the team.
One day, Captain Menon hopes, the attitude towards women at sea will change for the better: “With more women coming into this field, seafaring will become more open.” She acknowledges that she has seen the progress since she started on her seafaring studies, with parents no longer as skeptical about sending their daughters to sea.
Call of duty
One could even argue that women seafarers could generally be more caring, more perceptive and more forgiving – of nature’s vagaries and human foibles. This glass ceiling has now been broken firmly.
The promotion of sustainable shipping and sustainable maritime development is one of the major priorities of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) in the coming years.
IMO’s goals
Therefore, energy efficiency, new technology and innovation, maritime education and training, maritime security, maritime traffic management and the development of the maritime infrastructure: the development and implementation of global standards covering these and other issues will underpin IMO’s commitment to provide the institutional framework necessary for a green and sustainable global maritime transportation system. And women professionals will continue to play a major role in this transformation.
Incidentally, IMO also separately marked the International Day of the Seafarer on June 25 and called on everyone in the maritime world to get on board with this year’s theme of gender equality.
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Source: DailyNews
