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By Zika Bobby
The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and the Maritime Organisation of West and Central Africa (MOWCA) have agreed on a Joint Action Plan (JAP) to promote maritime security, safe, efficient and environment friendly shipping.
The JAP, which was agreed upon at IMO headquarters in London on Thursday had Kitack Lim, IMO Secretary General, Dr Paul Adaljkwu, MOWCA Secretary General and transportation ministers from West and Central African countries in attendance.
Both bodies agreed that the JAP be operational from 2022 to 2032 in the first phase and implemented to align towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), African Maritime Transport Charter, African Integrated Maritime Strategy 2050, and African Charter on Maritime Security, Safety and Development.
Adalikwu described the JAP as a bold step towards ensuring improved safety of ships, crewmembers and cargoes on African waters especially in the West and Central African regions.
He said the move would engender more technical cooperation between IMO and MOWCA for strategic human capital development that will leverage on technology.
He said African countries’ commitment to New technologies for greener shipping, which is the IMO’s 2022 theme requires short, medium and long term approaches for environmental sustainability.
Adalikwu said that the JAP would aim at enhancing the implementation, at the regional lever, of the extant MOWCA Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) of the Sub-Regional Integrated Coast Guard Function Network for West and Central “Africa signed in Dakar 2008.
Other features of the JAP include organising workshops and implementing appropriate steps to harmonise legal measures across West and Central Africa while ensuring that pirates and persons committing maritime crimes do not evade prosecution, and implementing appropriate actions to advance the delivery of the MOWCA Information and Communication Centre (“CINFOCOM”), among others.
