- The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the temporary closure of the IMO headquarters building, thus preventing the possibility of physical meetings being held.
- The last physical meeting prior to lockdowns coming into effect was the Ship Systems and Equipment (SSE) Sub-Committee held in early March 2020.
- Since then, restrictive rules and conditions to prevent the virus from spreading have severely hampered the movement of staff and delegates.
- It requires significant adjustments to the schedule and methods of work at the IMO.
- Currently all meetings through to mid-2021 are scheduled to take place online. This also applies to several intersessional working and drafting groups.
According to a recent news article published in International Union of Marine Insurance, written by Hendrike Kühl, IUMI Policy Director, IMO meetings are held online and all the physical meetings are cancelled.
How did IMO react to this Covid 19 pandemic?
A cautious approach was taken to re-construct a virtual meeting schedule and to identify the most suitable platform to host such complex online meetings.
The IMO Secretariat took on board experience gained by other United Nations agencies and developed guidance for virtual sessions of the various committees.
What is the present scenario?
The first virtual committee meeting was the Facilitation Committee held in October 2020.
This was followed by the Maritime Safety Committee’s 102nd session in November 2020.
The agenda was significantly reduced to ensure that all items could be addressed.
To date several meetings have been held online, including the ALCOM (All Committees) Meeting in September 2020 which was scheduled to debate and approve guidelines for the conduct of remote sessions.
What are the challenges?
Time keeping is extremely challenging as the working hours for all committee meetings have been scheduled for only three hours per day, including a 15-minute break.
For MSC 102 six such online meetings were scheduled from November 4-11.
This meant that a significantly shorter period was available than the eight working days allocated for the original (physical) meeting in May 2020.
The agenda was primarily focused on the outcomes of the sub-committees to enable them to continue with their work plans.
The proposal to address containership fire safety on which IUMI co-sponsored a joint paper looks set to be discussed at MSC 103 in May 2021.
Digital solutions
While digital solutions have averted a complete shutdown of the IMO operations, there is a long way to go to enable Member States and observer organisations to progress the important work on maritime safety and the marine environment in the virtual space.
A ray of hope
As the saying goes ‘hope dies last’ that physical meetings or possibly hybrid meetings will resume in London sooner rather than later, not least in light of potential vaccines currently in the approval process.
Did you subscribe to our daily newsletter?
It’s Free! Click here to Subscribe!
Source: International Union of Marine Insurance
