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ISWAN event explores the importance of effective allyship in addressing personal safety issues at sea

The event in London on 3rd October was hosted by The UK P&I Club and formed part of ISWAN’s ‘Safe at sea…it takes all of us!’ campaign.

On 3rd October, ISWAN held an event to explore how the maritime sector can address the high incidence of women’s personal safety issues at sea. The event, which was hosted by The UK P&I Club, examined the role that good allyship can play in making life at sea safer and more inclusive for all seafarers as part of ISWAN’s ‘Safe at sea…it takes all of us!’ campaign.

During the course of the afternoon, stakeholders from the cruise, shipping and superyacht industries came together to discuss the obstacles that women currently face to having safe and fulfilling maritime careers and explore potential solutions. The event was opened by the co-funders of the ‘Safe at sea…it takes all of us!’ campaign: Patrick Ryan, Sustainability Director and Head of Club Secretariat, on behalf of the UK P&I Club and Deborah Layde, the Chief Executive of The Seafarers’ Charity.

Simon Grainge, Chief Executive of ISWAN, outlined the background of the ‘Safe at sea’ campaign and the impact that it has had to date. He stressed that the campaign is built on direct input from seafarers about their experiences of personal safety issues and the changes they would like to see to make life at sea safer. As part of the engagement work to develop the campaign messaging, women seafarers consistently stressed that they did not want the campaign to single them out as different or special; instead, they want to be respected for their work and accepted as part of the team. For this reason, ISWAN’s campaign places an emphasis on inclusivity, whilst not obscuring the very real barriers that women seafarers face and the often harrowing experiences that they encounter at sea.

In the next session, Joseph Vess from Equimundo, a research organisation dedicated to achieving gender equality and social justice, talked in more detail about the concept of allyship, what good allyship looks like in practice and the impact that taking steps to strengthen a sense of allyship could have in a maritime context. He also introduced two new resources which Equimundo has produced with ISWAN as part of the campaign. The first guide is designed to support seafarers to be good allies to one another, whilst the companion guide for maritime stakeholders explores what employers, manning agents, management companies and other key stakeholders can do to foster a culture of allyship at sea.

The delegates then heard about three different initiatives that are taking different approaches to making seafaring safer and more inclusive for all. Ann Pletschke spoke about the work of Safer Waves to provide allyship to seafarers who experience sexual violence, sexual harassment or gender discrimination. Her presentation included practical guidance about how to respond to a disclosure of sexual abuse or sexual harassment (SASH), as well as effective action that anyone witnessing SASH can take in active situations. Susanne Justesen and Hana Nguyenová from the Global Maritime Forum (GMF) outlined the preliminary findings of the Diversity@Sea pilot study, which collected in-depth feedback from 400 seafarers onboard 12 vessels in order to identify concrete measures to improve onboard wellbeing, safety and inclusivity. Finally, Dr. Kate Pike discussed the latest phase of ISWAN’s long-term Social Interaction Matters (SIM) Project, which aims to strengthen the evidence base about the difference that good quality social interaction can make to seafarers’ wellbeing and, by extension, safety.

Presenters Susanne Justesen, Dr. Kate Pike and Ann Pletschke answer questions from the audience

In its first phase, ISWAN’s campaign has focused on engaging directly with seafarers about how they can be effective allies to one another at sea. However, going forwards, the campaign will also look at the role of maritime employers, training institutions and other stakeholders in fostering cultures of allyship at sea.

To open the final session of the day, Alan Croft, ISWAN’s Business Development Manager, gave an overview of some of the solutions that seafarers who have participated in ISWAN’s campaign believe would make life and work safer. One key theme to emerge from seafarers’ input was the crucial role of onboard culture, with seafarers emphasising the importance of effective leadership; proactive approaches to addressing inappropriate behaviour; more comprehensive onboard support and greater attention to the challenges of working in multicultural environments. Seafarers also highlighted the need to ensure that company policies are implemented in a way that is transparent, accountable and fair and that robust, trustworthy systems and processes are in place for reporting, responding to and investigating any incidents.

A panel of experts from the cruise, shipping and superyacht industries were then joined by Joseph Vess, the author of ISWAN’s allyship resources, to discuss what effective allyship looks like at a sector level and what it might take to achieve the structural changes that are needed to ensure that seafaring can offer safe and rewarding careers for all. To conclude the event, Georgia Allen, ISWAN’s campaign lead, outlined the next steps for ISWAN’s work to improve personal and psychological safety at sea and opportunities for stakeholders to get involved.

Part of the goal of ISWAN’s event was to gather ideas from delegates about how they believe that the ‘Safe at sea…it takes all of us!’ campaign can achieve the greatest impact at a sector-wide level. To this end, throughout the event, delegates were asked to submit their contributions to a series of key questions. Their answers, along with input gathered from seafarers and other discussions generated at the event, will be used to produce a short paper to continue the debate about how maritime stakeholders can be effective allies to seafarers.

ISWAN’s free resources, How to be an ally: A guide for seafarers and How to be an ally: A guide for maritime stakeholders can be downloaded here.

Further information about ISWAN’s ‘Safe at sea…it takes all of us!’ campaign is available on the ISWAN website. The campaign is co-funded by The Seafarers’ Charity and The UK P&I Club.

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