SPECIAL REPORT: SUSTAINABILITY


The big picture


ICAO secretary general, Raymond Benjamin, talks to Nancy Gautier about his views on industry priorities and how airports can play an influential role in shaping the future of aviation.


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aymond Benjamin is a man with persuasive skills. He took up his position as secretary general in 2009 on an agenda of reform, with the ambition to change the way ICAO does business, and he is determined to succeed.


“I want to make the organisation more effective in assisting,


facilitating and listening to the outside world, not just teaching lessons,” he said at the time. And he is energetically driving this platform forward. Three strategic objectives underpin his agenda – safety, security


and sustainability. “We at ICAO, as in most organisations, are being challenged to


streamline our staff and the scope of our work. We must focus on the essentials,” explains Benjamin. “When I first arrived at ICAO many years ago, we had 12 objectives. They were then narrowed down to six, but I have convinced the ICAO Council to restrict them even further to three critical areas. “At the Secretariat level, I am reorganising our divisions to


reflect this focus. We have created a new aviation security branch, a new environment branch and generally have reorganised the


AIRPORT WORLD/AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2010


staff in such a way that our people are more directly linked to the strategic objectives.” Benjamin admits that ICAO has not always been successful in


communicating externally about the work that is achieved. He intends to change that as well. “Each programme and each new initiative will involve


communications right from the start. We need to show our leadership on key issues. That won’t be done from Montréal alone,” says Benjamin. “We are seeking the means to strengthen our regional presence. It will be a tough challenge for us to deploy sufficient resources in our regional offices at a time when financial resources are scarce.” Enlarging on how he plans to manage work on the key


priorities, Benjamin speaks first about safety initiatives. “Our goal is to further reduce the industry accident rate. Put in context, even if today the number of occurrences is low, traffic is increasing. “That means we must reduce the number of accidents to maintain or improve on that record. And we want to diminish


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