The fourth Thursday of September of each year is a key date for the maritime industry. It is the World Maritime Day, which saw the commemoration of the history and work of the IMO on the 26th of last month. With safe navigation as a banner, this year’s theme was empowering women in the maritime community.
The IMO and World Maritime Day
The IMO was created in 1948 and entered into force in 1958. It was created to promote cooperation between governments in trade shipping regulations, as well as to facilitate the adoption of maritime safety standards, efficient navigation and the prevention of pollution at sea. In other words, to establish a common framework.
The World Maritime Day was celebrated for the first time on 17 March 1978 to mark the 20 anniversary of the IMO. A few years later, it established its current date at the end of September. Many things have changed since and while the organisation originally had 21 member states at that time, it now has more than 167, plus 3 associate ones, virtually all countries with a maritime interest.
Safe navigation
The IMO was created with safe navigation in mind, a concept that encompasses almost every aspect of maritime operations and anything related to this, from the construction and equipment of ships up to their scrapping or training of personnel that work at sea.
About fifty IMO conventions govern maritime transport in its different aspects and the fact that these are internationally accepted maritime transport contributes to a much safer maritime transport, both for people and for ships, port facilities, the cargo being transported and the environment.
And respect for the environment is an urgent issue for safe navigation in the 21st century. With decarbonisation of maritime transport being the primary battle for the IMO, the World Maritime Day highlights initiatives both for reducing contamination as well as helping countries to quantify their port emissions.
The presence of women at sea
The last World Maritime Day aimed to give visibility to women in maritime jobs. Women currently represent only 2% out of the 1.2 million seafarers worldwide, 94% of which are dedicated to the cruise ship segment.
Given these unfortunate figures, the World Maritime Day, under the slogan “Empowering women in the maritime community”, aimed to recognise the important contribution of women within the maritime sector, for this to be increased in the near future.
The IMO’s gender programme actually began in 1988. Since then, it has supported access to maritime training and employment opportunities for women in the maritime sector. But it still has a long way to go.
Bilogistik, a commitment to safe navigation.
It is not only the states, but also the companies that are committed to the World Maritime Day goals. Bilogistik is doing this, committed to responsible transportation and progress in the maritime sector:
- Respect for the environment: We comply with all the efficient navigation and environmental regulations to minimise emissions, such as those of the IMO 2020 mandate.
- Secure shipping: One of the keys to ensuring dispatches is for each operation to adjust to the type of cargo transported. This prevents delays and incidents that may adversely affect the cargo or cause damage to third parties. Bilogistik is also involved in every stage of the logistics chain, thus ensuring shipments.
- Gender equality Our workplace is a discrimination-free zone. We encourage the presence of women in our organisation and we hope for its specific weight in the sector as a whole to reach parity as soon as possible.
These points make Bilogistik’s mission aligned with that of the international maritime authority. Aspects that the World Maritime Day will continue raising awareness of, the next of which will be held on 24 September 2020.
