WISTA International Conference, Geneva, Switzerland

WISTA International Conference

Geneva, Switzerland

27 October 2022

Video recorded remarks by Kitack Lim, Secretary-General, IMO

Theme: WISTA Conference: Collaboration for Sustainability – Cross-Industry Solutions for the Future

Ladies and gentlemen,

It is my honor to speak to you at the WISTA International Conference today about a topic that is extremely close to my heart: collaboration for sustainability.

As many of you know, IMO is founded on the principles of collaboration between Member States, NGOs and IGOs, who must all work together to ensure a sustainable future for shipping and the wider industry.

As one of the international non-governmental organizations that participates in IMO discussions, WISTA International is an important part of this collaborative effort.

The maritime world is rapidly changing and we must use every opportunity to ensure a greener and more secure future. Over the next two days you will be exploring those opportunities in your discussions about decarbonization, ocean health and challenges for the future workforce.

Diverse voices and actions are needed to secure the future of maritime, so I am very pleased to see so many skilled professionals present at this event, ready to share their knowledge and experiences. We need more women like you in maritime.

IMO is committed to making maritime more welcoming to women, in line with UN Sustainable Development Goal 5, which aspires to "Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls".

Since it was set up in 1988, IMO's gender programme has been driving diversity and positive change and this year, on 18th May, we celebrated the first International Day for Women in Maritime, which will now be celebrated annually.

IMO's symposium to mark the day offered a platform for collaboration to promote gender diversity. I was pleased to see many regional events held on the day that explored avenues to support women's maritime careers.

Ladies and gentlemen, maritime is still a very male-dominated industry.

The inaugural IMO-WISTA Women in Maritime Survey, published to coincide with International Day for Women in Maritime, showed that women account for only 29% of the overall workforce in the general industry - and 20% of the workforce of national maritime authorities in Member States. The proportion of women working at sea is far lower – just 1.2% percent.

These data highlight the depth of the challenge we face and give us a baseline to measure improvement. I hope that when that survey is repeated, the proportion and distribution of women working in the maritime sector will be greater. We are all responsible for doing what we can to raise the visibility of maritime women and their progression.

The biggest factor in shaping our collective future is ensuring that we encourage new waves of women leaders. Through our partnership with WISTA International, IMO's Women in Maritime programme sponsored 30 women from developing countries to take part in the first Maritime SheEO leadership accelerator programme in 2022. This eight-week programme was such a success that we sponsored a second group of female leaders, who will graduate later this year.

Ladies and Gentlemen, whether we are working to decarbonize shipping, support our seafarers, encourage diversity or embrace new technologies, every action that we take has the potential to improve the future.

Collaboration and knowledge sharing are the keys to unlocking that potential because when we harness the strength of different sectors and industries, this potential grows significantly stronger.

I wish you the very best for your conference and I look forward to seeing the foundations that you lay down today support the maritime world of tomorrow.

Thank you.