But despite this oil spill having a clear gender impact, many Mauritians were stunned by the insensitivity of this by international organizations tripping over themselves to ‘help’ the island without once speaking to the islanders, who had organized themselves effectively in several large social media groups. Even more revealing was the gender breakdown of the teams that these international groups were sending into Mauritius.


At the last count, there were 16 international organizations that have been publicly identified as being involved in the oil spill response. They were each approached to provide basic information on gender balance of the team and policies that their organizations had put in place to ensure a more balanced gender impact.


Surprisingly, of the 79 international consultants and ‘experts’ who have been flown into Mauritius, not one has revealed any female participation. Having seen how prominent a role women in Mauritius played in responding to the oil spill, and even though this oil spill clearly has a disproportionate impact on women, could it really be true that all these organizations were unable to find suitably qualified candidates?


IMO Meetings at the London Head Office are a largely male affair. Even the literature put out to ensure a more level playing field for women acknowledges that this is still a heavily male dominated industry. That would be very uncomfortable for an organization that made ‘empowering women in the maritime community’ one of its big themes last year.


Looking at the IMO response to this major environmental crisis, one wonders whether such gender equality efforts have been more marketing than substance.


The IMO is governed by an Assembly, made up of all member states, which elects a 40-Member


State Council. This 40-member Council is the executive organ of the IMO where the most critical operational decisions get taken. While it is true that it is for members to choose which individual delegates to send, many organizations have managed to increase female representation among delegations.


While the IMO has pointed to the delegations, they have been unable to demonstrate that these metrics are being tracked. When asked what steps were taken prior to the oil spill to ensure that other organizations being been brought into Mauritius have a more even gender balance, there was no immediate response. An oil spill response is not just an engineering solution. Oil spills have deep social, environmental, health and political dimensions.


Of the 32 representatives sent by the Japanese Government and Japanese corporate giant, Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL), not one of them is female. It is hard to believe that there are no suitably qualified Japanese marine scientists who were not interested in supporting Japan’s mission, and who could bring an all-important gender lens to the Mauritius response.


The events of the Wakashio started as a shipping incident, but amid growing national protests in the country, the actions, conduct and lack of transparency over the global shipping regulator could be seen as fanning the flames, rather than building the trust, transparency and truth that the islanders of Mauritius have been demanding all along. The standard response of the industry to blame the crew - the captain of the Cosco Busan was accused of being on drugs, the captain of the Exxon Valdez accused of being drunk (and importantly overturned), and the captain of the Wakashio apparently accused of both - is a troubling development by the Panama authorities who arrived in Mauritius and immediately made this announcement.


With ships exploding, sinking and catching fire around the world, and


80 | The Report • December 2020 • Issue 94


150 million along the Red Sea fearful of a massive ecological disaster from an aging oil tanker, surely it is time to be rethinking how we govern global shipping. If the IMO cannot be trusted to reform itself, perhaps leadership from the G20 could put much overdue order into this industry.


Global shipping is a $3 trillion a year industry. If it was a country, it would be the fifth largest economy in the world. Poor governance of such an important industry is now destabilizing countries and increasing geopolitical risk around the world.


If the narrative of the shipping industry is to be believed, it appears then we should be particularly worried that we have tens of thousands of large, unsafe ships, transporting dangerous and explosive goods, that are powered by toxic chemicals and are being crewed and captained by individuals with chronic alcohol and drugs issues – clearly not the case.


If that isn’t a wakeup call for greater intervention by the G20 into the global shipping industry, then what else would it take?


When the IMO representatives themselves almost fatalistically accept that another shipping accident is likely to happen in Mauritius and that Mauritius should be prepared, rather than the shipping industry be better prepared (see 33rd minute of the video), it doesn’t sound like a regulator that is serious about fixing the root causes of the problems in its industry, and saying ‘never again.’ The message being sent is that returns will continue to privatized by the ship owners, and risks borne by poorer taxpayers and nations around the world.


The actions of the IMO in what was once the paradise island of Mauritius has shown that this is a regulator that is out of touch and out of date.


It is the year 2020. The world deserves better.


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