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The World Maritime University’s (WMU) research and capacity-building program on Empowering Women for the UN Decade of Ocean Science (Empowering Women Programme) has been endorsed as a "Decade Action" by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (IOC-UNESCO). <\/p>\n
The program will enhance capacity to explore and promote women's empowerment and gender equality in the conduct of ocean science and in science-dependent governance systems. Research findings will identify key barriers and good practice contributing to a proposed strategy and action plan to help deliver equal opportunities for full participation and leadership by women at all levels of ocean science under the Ocean Decade.<\/p>\n
WMU’s Empowering Women Programme is generously sponsored by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), with additional support from The Nippon Foundation, and is delivered through a multidisciplinary team at the WMU-Sasakawa Global Ocean Institute.<\/p>\n
“The Ocean Decade provides a golden opportunity to achieve gender equality in ocean science. I firmly believe that through a range of initiatives, the Empowering Women Programme, delivered by the WMU-Sasakawa Global Ocean Institute, will enhance the capacity to explore and promote women’s empowerment and gender equality in the conduct of ocean science, as well as in science-dependent governance systems," said Dr. Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry, President of WMU. "We could not be more pleased that the importance of this Programme has been duly recognized by IOC-UNESCO.”<\/p>\n
The Ocean Decade promotes "the science we need for the ocean we want" by strengthening international scientific cooperation. It also contributes to UN processes protecting the ocean and its resources, such as the SAMOA Pathway, the United Nations Convention for the Law of the Sea, the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.<\/p>\n