Interlinking the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14 – Life Below Water – and Gender Equality, the UN Ocean Conference this week is aiming to increase women’s participation and leadership in ocean related issues.
Oman has become the 100th country to ratify a 2006 treaty that protects the rights, pay and conditions of seafarers - a milestone that was commemorated on Monday by a ceremony at the headquarters of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Geneva.
Although the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on maritime trade last year was less severe than expected, the knock-on effects will be far reaching and could transform the sector, the UN trade and development body, UNCTAD, said in its latest report, published on Thursday.
If emissions from the maritime industry are not cut, we are headed for “an environmental disaster”, Isabelle Durant, the deputy head of the UN trade body, UNCTAD, told the Global Maritime Forum summit on Wednesday.
Women are “an unused resource” in the shipping industry, a resource which should be tapped if the industry is to expand.
That’s according to Lee Adamson, from the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
The organization says that only 2 per cent of the world’s seafarers are currently women.
It’s an issue which is being focused on during World Maritime Day, celebrated annually on 24 September.
