NUKU\u2019ALOFA, Tonga\u2014The Pacific Women in Maritime Association (PacWiMA) has been revived and will advocate for the empowerment and integration of Pacific women in the maritime sector.<\/p>\n
This was among the outcomes of a conference held in Tonga last week which brought together stakeholders from the region\u2019s maritime sector to actively discuss and share ideas on the theme of recognising the economic contribution and leadership of women in this sector.<\/p>\n
Organised by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the Pacific Community (SPC), the conference enabled Pacific Island country and territory representatives to provide tangible solutions for raising the profile of the involvement of women in the maritime sector, through networking, advocacy and awareness programmes.<\/p>\n
The participants adopted a resolution and a work plan for the next three years, and agreed to advocate in their respective countries for the adoption and promotion of policies and regulations supporting access for women to maritime education and the merchant marine professions. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis type of conference is long overdue in raising awareness of women\u2019s role in sustainable development and its theme indicated that a better future for Pacific women in maritime is ahead of us and that we must seize this opportunity to make sure that we shall not fail, for failure is not an option,\u201d the Chief Executive Officer of Tonga\u2019s Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ana Bing Fonua, stated. <\/p>\n
\u201cCreating a community of experienced women in maritime occupations needs to take place at several levels, in the sector and its industries,\u201d Ms Fonua added. <\/p>\n
Women make up only 2 percent of the worldwide supply of seafarers and mainly work in the cruise and ferries sector which are among the worst paid and least protected jobs at sea. <\/p>\n
Evidence suggests an increasing number of women are entering the maritime profession to ensure passengers and cargo are transported safely. <\/p>\n
Nonetheless, the contribution of women is generally unrecognized and undervalued. Changing this view is a looming challenge for the sector that is being addressed through global and regional efforts. <\/p>\n
\u201cEntry of women into the maritime sector must be enhanced for the sector to flourish. The IMO has been actively working for over 25 years not only to integrate women into the maritime industry, but also to change the sector for the betterment of women,\u201d the Senior Deputy Director, Technical Cooperation Division, IMO, Pamela Tansey, said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis discussion is well-timed and extremely encouraging, which is critical for this topic to secure sustained attention both at national and regional level, with a common goal to transform the maritime sector to a more inclusive and gender-balanced domain,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n
The conference highlighted the importance of a coordinated approach to keeping women employed in the maritime sector and made aware of opportunities and emerging issues. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a timely effort by the Pacific region in responding to Sustainable Development Goal 5 in encouraging policy discussion on women\u2019s full and effective participation, in this case, the integration of women in the maritime sector,\u201d SPC\u2019s Deputy Director Transport, Thierry Nervale, said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMore importantly, the focus of the meeting reinforces the Pacific Community\u2019s regional effort to promote the advancement of women through economic empowerment,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Women from the Pacific region who hold positions in maritime affairs, maritime education and training, the protection of the marine environment, ports and fisheries and the gender-related domain attended the regional meeting along with a few male counterparts from both the public and private sectors. <\/p>\n
The conference ended on Friday in Nuku\u2019alofa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NUKU\u2019ALOFA, Tonga\u2014The Pacific Women in Maritime Association (PacWiMA) has been revived and will advocate for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[11278,37,11279,466],"class_list":["post-226714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-ana-bing-fonua","tag-education-2","tag-ms-fonua","tag-tonga"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226714\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}