“Seafarers: the core of the future of shipping” has been chosen as the world’s maritime theme for 2021, reflecting the urgent need to raise awareness of the important role seafarers play in trade. world trade and to broaden their horizons.
The focus on seafarers comes as the Covid-19 pandemic places extraordinary and unprecedented demands on them. Hundreds of thousands of seafarers have faced and are still dealing with extended time at sea, months of living and working on ships away from their families and loved ones. The 2020 Covid-19 crew change crisis has highlighted the exceptional contribution seafarers make as key and essential workers on the front lines of moving world trade through. pandemic, return to normal activities.
At the 32nd Extraordinary Meeting, held from May 4 to August 3, 2020 through an exchange of letters, the Council of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) agreed on this topic. at the proposal of IMO Secretary-General, Mr. Kitack Lim.
This theme will provide flexibility to the IMO Secretariat, Member States and NGOs in a consultative role for IMO to focus on seafarers who are at the heart of shipping, At the same time, it allows activities to delve into specific topics related to the role of seafarers in maritime safety, security, protection of the marine environment, seafarers’ health, the future of the profession. seafaring in the context of increasing digitization and automation.
Secretary-General Kitack Lim said that, more than ever, the Covid-19 pandemic shows how vital it is to ensure the functioning of global supply chains and facilitate safe and efficient operations. of sea transportation. “Through these difficult times, the international community has seen how capable shipping services and seafarers are in delivering critical goods, including medical supplies and food. , is central to dealing with and ultimately overcoming this pandemic. This could not have happened without the professionalism and dedication of the world’s seafarers,” Mr Lim said.
Seafarers have always been at the heart of everything that IMO has done, is doing and will do. IMO has focused on training seafarers, putting the human factor at the center of the process of developing new regulations or amending and supplementing existing ones. Seafarers’ contributions to shipping and world trade are always recognized and appreciated by the international community through the annual “Seafarers Day” campaign. In 2020, this campaign is repeated for the 10th time with the theme “Seafarers are key workers”.
The World Maritime Theme for 2021 is also linked to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG) – in particular, Goal 4 on education and training; objective 8 relates to good work; objective 9 on innovation and industry, linked to the promotion of a resilient maritime sector; and goal 5 on gender equality, associated with efforts to promote seafaring as a profession for everyone, especially women. Furthermore, the 2021 theme can be seen as an extension of the 2020 theme, which is “Sustainable Shipping for a Sustainable Planet” as seafarers are also at the core of that theme. .
