The Role of NGOs in the Maritime Industry and how they Influence Essay

The Role of NGOs in the Maritime Industry and how they Influence Policies concerning the Protection of Seafarers - Essay Example According to Alan (2005), IMO also has a council consisting of 40 members elected by the Assembly and acts as the governing body in between the assembly sessions preparing the work program and the budget for the Assembly. The main technical work is carried out by the Maritime Safety, Marine Environment Protection, Legal’ Technical Co-operation and Facilitation Committees, as well as, a number of sub-committees. IMO’s slogan summarises its objectives namely; safe, secure, and efficient shipping on clean oceans. IMO is currently headed by Koji Sekimizu. IMO is one of the smallest agencies in the United Nations both in terms of the staff numbers and budget. As such, the IMO Assembly approved a budget of over 64 million pounds for 2014 through 2015. However, the reason to this is that the costs are shared between the 170 member states in proportion to the size of each one’s fleet of the merchant ships. For more than two decades, the world has come to know the term â€Å"non-governmental organisation† and its acronym â€Å"NGO† and synonymously associated it to voluntary, advocacy, and philanthropic organisations safeguarding varied public interests in the fields of public health, human rights, environmental protection, global equity, and solidarity, humanitarian affairs, conservation, arms control and many more. The contribution of NGOs to the conservation and governance of oceans cannot be underestimated and continues to be extremely fundamental and far-reaching. The nature of the contributions by the NGO in marine governance, management, science, and conservation is as varied as the nature of the NGOs themselves. It is in line with Article 71 of the UN Charter that envisioned that The Economic and Social Council may make suitable arrangements for consultation with non-governmental organisations that concern themselves with matters of competence. Such