IMO’s Gisela Vieira is in Angola for a contingency-planning table top exercise (6-8 October). The exercise is being hosted by the country’s Port and Maritime Authority and is being attended by senior level personnel with decision-making authority from relevant departments within the Government of Angola. A series of table top exercises are scheduled to take place in west and central Africa during 2014, intended to stimulate discussions and demonstrate the need for co-operation amongst government departments and agencies, by using a range of evolving scenarios to determine respective roles, responsibilities, processes and procedures, and how these may develop, both with respect to routine business, and during an incident.