It was announced on 8 February that IMO has launched a new logo for its Women in Maritime programme, as part of its mission to support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.
Programme lead Helen Buni said: ‘The IMO Women in Maritime programme supports the participation of women in both shore-based and sea-going posts, under the slogan Training-Visibility-Recognition’, through a wide range of gender-specific activities. The new logo is just one visible part of the programme and will help women in maritime gain more visibility and exposure throughout the maritime sector and beyond.’
Primary objective of the IMO Women in Maritime programme is to encourage IMO Member States to open the doors of their maritime institutes to enable women to train alongside men and acquire the high-level of competence that the maritime industry demands.
Since the programme was established 31 years ago, its portfolio of activities has grown extensively. IMO has facilitated the establishment of seven regional associations for women in the maritime sector across Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, the Middle East and the Pacific Islands, some 152 countries and dependent territories and 490 participants.
Access to high-level training
IMO’s programme provides gender-specific fellowships, giving access to high-level technical training for women in the maritime sector in developing countries. A good example is the long-running Women in Port Management course, hosted in Le Havre, France, in partnership with the Port Institute for Education and Research (IPER) and the Le Havre Port Authority, where, in 2018, 48 women from 32 countries received training on port management. A total of 308 women have received training under this activity alone.
WMU
At IMO’s World Maritime University (WMU) in Malmö, Sweden, the proportion of women graduates has increased steadily over the years. The number of female graduates has increased steadily over the years – from 4 in 1985 to 79 in 2018. By the end of the academic year 2017-2018, 1,029 females had graduated from the University, out of a total 4,919 graduates.
IMLI
In Malta, at IMO’s International Maritime Law Institute (IMLI), 361 women had graduated by the end of the 2017-2018 academic year, out of a total of 837 graduates.
IMO also facilitates the identification and selection of women by their respective authorities for career development opportunities in maritime administrations, ports and maritime training institutes.
Activities this year
During 2019, some ten activities are planned under the umbrella of the IMO Women in Maritime programme, including conferences, courses, workshops and regional meetings.
Ms Buni concluded by saying: ‘We are inviting IMO Member States and particularly the regional associations for women in the maritime sector to use the new logo as they see fit, to show that they are part of a strong, global IMO Women in Maritime family’.
Launch of the new logo for the Women in Maritime programme comes as IMO focuses on women in maritime during 2019, under the World Maritime Day theme: Empowering Women in the Maritime Community.
The Women in Maritime programme is largely funded through IMO’s Technical Cooperation fund, with a great deal of in-kind and financial support from a number of donors. IMO continues to seek new sources of funding in order to support the programme into the future.
IMO’s Women in Maritime programme was formerly known as the programme for the Integration of Women in the Maritime Sector (IWMS).
Latest News & Events
North Sea Port has indicated that 54% of goods transported to the hinterland are moved by inland waterway shipping. This is the outcome of a study conducted by the port among companies throughout the port area and published on 28 November.
As a multimodal port, North Sea Port will increasingly be focusing on sustainable transport in the future, it is reported.
North Sea Port conducted research into the various transport options used by companies to move goods to the hinterland. This revealed that 54% of goods are transported by means of inland waterway shipping. 30% is loaded into lorries, whilst 9% is transported by rail. Transhipping cargo from one vessel to another accounts for 7%.
Results of this study were explained during North Sea Port’s multimodal event. At an Intermodal Marketplace, shippers and logistics intermediaries were able to find out about the rapidly expanding range of services provided by terminals and shipping companies in the port. These parties offer regular services from North Sea Port with destinations such as Antwerp, Rotterdam, Zeebrugge, Scandinavia, Spain, Italy, Great Britain, China, West Africa and South America by sea (deep-sea and short-sea), rail and inland waterway shipping.
DFDS is now using the new ro-ro ship Hollandia Seaways on the route between North Sea Port Ghent and Gothenburg in Sweden.
On 5 December, DFDS’s largest ship was officially named at the Mercatordok Multimodal Terminal in Ghent, North Sea Port.
The purpose of North Sea Port is to manage, operate and develop the 60 kilometres long cross-border port area from the Dutch port of Vlissingen to Ghent in Flanders. Within this framework, it intends to strengthen the position of the port and industrial complex in the area, both in a national and in an international perspective. North Sea Port employs 250 staff.
Hollandia Seaways can carry 450 trailers, representing a cargo capacity of 6,700 line metres. It has a length overall of 237.4 metres. With an extra floor for trailers, this new ship will immediately catch the eye when in the lock in Terneuzen or on the Ghent-Terneuzen Canal. The vessel is not only larger than the three DFDS ships which currently sail between Ghent and Gothenburg six times a week, it will be by far the largest ship in the entire DFDS fleet. This larger vessel will take the place of one of the three existing ships on the route. As a result, capacity will increase by some 600 trailers per week.
