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The UN’s 2030 Agenda for sustainable development and the maritime transport domain: the role and challenges of IMO and its stakeholders through a grounded theory perspective

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Abstract

In September 2015, the United Nations (UN) officially adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development together with 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) (UN, 2016). The attainment of the SDGs requires a strong commitment by all UN Member States, not least by the Member States at the International Maritime Organization (IMO). This empirical research aims to identify the role and challenges of stakeholders at IMO, when implementing the UN’s 2030 Agenda in the international maritime transport domain using a grounded theory approach. This paper describes the methodology and the analytical process undertaken and presents the main findings based on empirical data. The results are presented as a set of six propositions. The first proposition presents the phenomena engulfing Member States at IMO stemming out from lack of knowledge and policy incoherency on the 2030 Agenda at national level. The other five propositions suggest how these challenges could potentially be best alleviated through an IMO-led strategy on sustainable development within the context of the 2030 Agenda, supported by an appropriate governance structure that sees the introduction of strategic actors for coordinating the implementation of the SDGs at national level. With the support of a Task Force, and by also making use of the IMO Member State Audit Scheme (IMSAS), to create more awareness and ownership, the strategic actors could work towards balancing the three dimensions of sustainable development—the economic, the environmental, and the social dimensions—which were found to be imbalanced in the international maritime transport domain.

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Notes

  1. (http://www.imo.org/en/Pages/Default.aspx).

  2. The SMTS was launched on September 26, 2013 by IMO during a special 1-day symposium it hosted on a Sustainable Maritime Transportation System—it was the 36th celebration of World Maritime Day and the theme was “Sustainable Development: IMO’s contribution beyond Rio+20” (IMO 2013a).

  3. The IMO Assembly, which meets once every 2 years, and the member Governments adopt the Strategic Plan which contains key strategic directions that will enable IMO to achieve its mission objectives.

  4. The most relevant SDGs were found to be SDGs 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 13, 14, and 17 (IMO 2017e, p. 12).

  5. Draft Assembly resolution “The linkages between IMO’s Technical Assistance work and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” and draft Assembly resolution “Guiding Principles of IMO’s Integrated Technical Cooperation Programme in support of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” (IMO 2017i, p. 8).

  6. Out of 87 outputs to be delivered for the 2018–2019 biennium, there are only two outputs referring to the SDGs—under SD 4 (engage in ocean governance) output number 4.2 and under SD 5 (enhance global facilitation and security of internal trade) output number 5.5. Both have the TCC as the parent organ. Out of the 49 outputs related to other work (OW), there are none referring to the SDGs (IMO 2017h). Additionally, none of the Performance Indicators (42 in total) associated with the seven IMO SDs are linked to an SDG (IMO 2017g).

  7. http://www.fao.org/home/en/

  8. http://www.ilo.org/global/lang--en/index.htm

  9. https://www.icao.int/Pages/default.aspx

  10. The IMO Council C118, held in July 2017, decided to task the IMO Secretariat to prepare a document showing how the outputs and the IMO Strategic Directions can be linked with the SDGs. The document will be discussed in July 2018 at the IMO Council C120.

  11. The IMO Member State Audit Scheme (IMSAS) aims to provide an audited Member State with a possibility of an assessment of how effectively it implements and administers the mandatory IMO instruments falling under the Scheme (IMO, 2017b).

  12. Most of the Member States that were interviewed were oblivious of what their country is doing on the 2030 Agenda. In actual fact, they were never consulted back home on the SDGs and yet they were expected to engage at IMO on how the implementation of the SDGs is to be effected from an international shipping point of view. What was indeed surprising was that a good number of these countries had in fact ranked among the top performing countries in respect of UN SDG achievements and were listed in the “The SDG Index and Dashboards 2017 Report which was completed by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network and the Bertelsmann Stiftung (SDSN 2017). This report provides information on the performance of those countries that are actively implementing the UN’s 2030 Agenda and its 17 SDGs and is currently listing 157 countries.

  13. The NGOs, in particular, were more concerned about the fact that the discussions on the 2030 Agenda at IMO took a considerable amount of time to start and as a result this has put IMO behind other UN bodies in terms of desired SDG outcome; however, the TCC has started to link its work activities with the SDGs.

  14. An NGO stated, “I think part of the challenge for IMO is that because shipping doesn’t officially appear to connote to include the ocean, this is the big discussion that needs to have whether or not IMO has a mandate for the oceans but for me since all ships are crossing the oceans IMO has responsibilities vis-á-vis the oceans.”

  15. International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), 1974, as amended.

  16. International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, 1973, as modified by the Protocol of the 1978 relating thereto and by the Protocol of 1997 (MARPOL).

  17. International Convention on Standards of Training, Certificaiton and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW).

  18. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CSG (Research in Social Sciences and Management), Lisbon School of Economics and Management (ISEG), Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

    Lawrence Sciberras & Joaquim Ramos Silva

  2. SOCIUS (Research Centre in Economic and Organizational Sociology), Lisbon School of Economics and Management (ISEG), Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

    Joaquim Ramos Silva

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  1. Lawrence Sciberras
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  2. Joaquim Ramos Silva
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Correspondence to Lawrence Sciberras.

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Sciberras, L., Silva, J.R. The UN’s 2030 Agenda for sustainable development and the maritime transport domain: the role and challenges of IMO and its stakeholders through a grounded theory perspective. WMU J Marit Affairs 17, 435–459 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13437-018-0147-2

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