During this 90-min webinar hosted by the International Ocean Institute and the ECOP Programme, expert speakers engaged in a lively debate with ECOPs and Ocean experts on whether 2022 was truly the Ocean Super Year we hoped for.
The IOI was represented by two speakers at this event, with Antonella Vassallo (Managing Director, IOI) and Awni Behnam (Honorary President, IOI) sharing their experiences and insights on two major Ocean events that took place this year, the UN Ocean Conference and the Fifth Session of the IGC on an Internationally Legally Binding Instrument under UNCLOS respectively. The 3rd speaker, Ms Angelique Pouponneau, delivered a presentation on the outcomes of COP27, that recently concluded in Sharm el-Sheikh Egypt in November 2022. Introductions and moderation was done by Evgeniia Kostianaia (ECOP Programme Global Coordinator and Alumnus of 2019 IOI Malta Training Programme) and Cosmin Chivu (Project Officer, IOI).
The conclusions of the audience to the question “was 2022 the Super Year for the Ocean that you hoped for?” was that unfortunately, the year fell short of the initial expectations with most respondents mentioning that "Outcomes from these events and negotiations fell short of expectations" (68%) and that "more needs to be done to include meaningful civil society participation" (48%), while the rest considering that "this is all just about talking and nothing really meaningful happens afterwards" (38% and that "there was not enough stakeholder participation" (19%) .
This event was also part of the IOI's Continuing Professional Development Series, where as part of IOI’s commitment to enhancing the professional development of its alumni, IOI HQ spearheads the overall global programme tasked with implementing online programmes targeting IOI Alumni.
Further takeaways and insights from this webinar are presented in the infographic below, and also the full recording of the event.
The Early Career Ocean Professional (ECOP) Network Programme is established to empower ECOPs, who self-identify as being early in their career in any field related to the ocean. Learn more here.
