The International Maritime Organization (IMO) was established by convention in Geneva in 1948 and the main task which has since expanded since is to develop and maintain a comprehensive regulatory framework for shipping, inclusive of safety, environmental concerns, legal matters, technical co-operation, maritime security and the efficiency of shipping. The IMO is a specialized agency of the United Nations with 167 Member States and three Associate Members and is based in the United Kingdom with around 300 international staff.
The International Maritime Organisation mission statement is: Safe, Secure and Efficient Shipping on Clean Oceans6.
Specialized committees and sub-committees are the focus for the IMO technical work programme which updates existing legislation or develops and adopts new regulations; the associated meetings are attended by maritime experts from Member Governments, together with those from interested intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations.
The technical programme structure provides for a comprehensive body of international conventions, supported by recommendations governing every facet of shipping. Objectives are aimed at the prevention of accidents, including standards for ship design, construction, equipment, operation and manning - key treaties include SOLAS, the MARPOL convention for the prevention of pollution by ships and the STCW convention on standards of training for seafarers. Furthermore, the IMO scrutinise the rules concerning distress and safety communications, the International Convention on Search and Rescue and the International Convention on Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response and Co-operation, these particular issues are significant for the development of NWAMSA.
The IMO has an extensive technical co-operation programme, and has founded three advanced level maritime educational institutes in Malmö, Malta and Trieste.
The International Maritime Organisation will be an important link for the development of the NWAMSA. The potential benefits of a partnership are demonstrated by way of the proposed aims of NWAMSA and the mission statement of the IMO each focus on the terms safe, secure, clean and maritime. It is envisaged that NWAMSA will generate unique knowledge for many sections of the IMO's activities and thus develop a specific internal capacity to provide expert advice on issues that have an important and direct bearing on IMO's work. NWAMSA has in mind aims to provide as much added value as possible for the IMO. This is demonstrated by way of the tasks set out in objective one, in particular task three, which is to propose design and implement a NWAMSA scientific based intelligence system to provide African Member States and other maritime stakeholders with a transparent and robust knowledge exchange centre, from where sound decisions can be formulated.
It is also expected that work carried out by the IMO will also underpin decisions made by NWAMSA in that the expertise of the IMO and efficient knowledge exchanges will help reduce potential overlap and ensure that added value is optimised.
The expected relationship will be based on the following IMO´s Technical Co-operation Programme mission statement:
´To help developing countries improve their ability to comply with international rules and standards relating to maritime safety and the prevention and control of maritime pollution, giving priority to technical assistance programmes that focus on human resources development and institutional capacity-building´ .
Also the commitments the IMO have made with regards to the United Nations Millennium Declaration whereon during 2005 they adopted a resolution on technical co operation as a means to support the goals of the declaration, with an emphasis for the technical co-operation activities specifically on meeting the special assistance needs of Africa.
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