The All Aboard Alliance today announced the Diversity@Sea initiative, that will see 11 companies pilot a series of test measures to make life at sea more inclusive and attractive to all seafarers.
The 11 participating companies have committed to meeting a series of minimum requirements onboard one pilot vessel within their fleet. These include having a minimum of four women onboard (a high number in an industry with less than 2% women), providing appropriate conditions for menstrual needs, providing 24/7 wi-fi for crew members, and ensuring that all seaborne staff have access to inclusive personal protective equipment.
The pilot vessels will set sail when these minimum requirements are met, with the first six scheduled to set sail no later than 1 November.
The participating companies are: Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, bp, Cargill, Chevron Shipping, Diana Shipping, Dorian LPG, Gaslog, Hafnia, Stena, Synergy, and Swire Shipping. One of the participating vessels is Synergy’s Southern Reverence, which is scheduled to depart Singapore on 30 October helmed by Captain Radhika Menon, the first woman to become a captain in the Indian Merchant Navy.
We have a lot of companies involved [in the Diversity@Sea initiative], so this will bring out a lot of change because it sends a very loud message saying the industry is ready to accommodate women
… said Captain Menon.
In the first part of the Diversity@Sea project, 115 interviews with seafarers helped identify ’15 Key Pain Points for Women at Sea’, which was published earlier this year. Following this, leaders, seafarers, and experts from the involved companies worked together to co-design concrete measures to address these pain points.
In an exclusive interview with SAFETY4SEA, Susanne Justesen, who is leading the All Aboard Alliance team in the Global Maritime Forum, had explained that the pain points identified in the report can be grouped into four main groups: the difficulty for women to succeed professionally because of their gender, how social relations at sea can be particularly challenging, more general employment challenges, and the non-inclusive physical conditions onboard vessels. By uncovering the challenges that women at sea face, we can start addressing them, and eventually reduce or eliminate them.
The pilot measures will explore different approaches to improving work-life balance for everyone at sea within maritime shipping.
With 11 companies at the helm, we are laying the foundation for a maritime industry that is better equipped to meet the demands of tomorrow
… commented said Mikael Skov, Co-Chair of the All Aboard Alliance and CEO of Hafnia
The Diversity@Sea pilot is the result of an ambitious collaboration between All Aboard Alliance member companies that is exploring how to make life at sea more inclusive and attractive to both men and women at sea.
The pilot project seeks to test these chosen measures and proposed solutions aboard select vessels. We aim to gain practical insights into what constitutes an attractive and inclusive maritime career at sea and collectively take action to drive the necessary changes.
… explained Susanne Justesen, Programme Director, Global Maritime Forum
To track the progress of the participating companies towards the stated goals of the pilot, the Global Maritime Forum will gather and assess data from crew members onboard the pilot vessels in partnership with independent maritime data analytics firm PsiFyi.
Comparative analysis with non-participating vessels will offer insights into the effectiveness of these measures.
