The fact that I spent the best part of a week in Geneva a short while ago was the subject of quite a few jokes from friends and contacts who are not familiar with the world of global shipping.
For those who don’t know much about the place, and there’s no particular reason why you should, Geneva is a largeish city in Switzerland – a landlocked country which is, therefore, without ports – famous in equal measures for mountains, banking, watches and cheese.
“Geneva? … bit of a long way from the sea, mate!” So went the jokes online.
I was in Geneva for a meeting of the heads of agencies of ICMA, the International Christian Maritime Association. Participants were in attendance from around the world and from a considerable number of agencies that I had no idea even existed! ICMA itself does not engage in welfare activities in any ports, and neither does it fundraise for the work that its participant members seek to do in service of the world’s seafarers. ICMA is involved in training and supporting the regional conferences in which many of our Mission people have taken part. Crucially, however, with its wide global membership, ICMA is able to speak for our welfare agencies with a single voice on a world stage. That is why we were in Geneva.
As well as the watches and the cheese, Geneva is also home to parts of the United Nations Organisation, and under the oversight of the United Nations all kinds of things get decided that significantly impact the wellbeing of seafarers. The Maritime Labour Convention (the “MLC”) that sets expectations about working patterns, shore leave, medical care, repatriation and goodness knows what else, was drafted and approved through the United Nations. Representatives of governments, shipping companies and trades unions debate and approve such conventions, and what they decide affects us all, but most especially seafarers. We were in Geneva to agree a united position in arguing for a number of potential changes to the MLC, and if those are passed it will be for the benefit of not just a few seafarers, but ultimately for all.
No single welfare organisation would be permitted to contribute to these United Nations debates and decisions, but together as ICMA we have a place and a voice that is sought and listened to.
As I looked around the gathering and listened to the range of contributions, I was struck once again by the global nature of shipping. I was struck also by the way that concern for seafarers’ welfare nevertheless impacts locally person by person, place by place, ship by ship, and life by life. I was grateful that we are part of ICMA. Although The Mission to Seafarers is one of the organisation’s largest members, our voice is nevertheless greater because we are part of ICMA. I was grateful also for the many partner organisations present and collaborating together. On occasions, and especially in the larger ports of the world, some of us are present together, and for the most part collaborate together very effectively. Far more, however, I was conscious that other agencies are working in places where we have no presence at all. Yet we are all serving the same seafarers. What we offer in one place may be continuing work that has been started elsewhere. The conversation we have in one location may then be picked up and continued by another person in another port, and supported by another ICMA member agency.
My week with ICMA members, far from the sea in Geneva, was actually all about the sea and the wellbeing of those who spend their lives working upon it. It was a week about developing the shared understanding and partnership that enables us to shape international conventions and policy that impact all seafarers. It was about building the collaborations that enable the reach of all of us together to be greater than any one agency can achieve alone.
I don’t know what each person reading this month’s blog will do this day or this week that in some measure serves the world’s seafarers. Sometimes what we do may seem modest in its significance, but it is good to remember that by being part of the wider service of the Mission and through our partnerships in the wider maritime world, each action is amplified. The whole of what we are is greater than the sum of our parts.
