Awni Behnam, Honorary President, and Antonella Vassallo, Managing Director, visited the offices of UNESCO in Paris to meet the incoming Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO. On behalf of the IOI and the Board of Governors, they congratulated Mr Vidar Helgesen on his appointment. The meeting was an opportunity to convey a brief introduction to the IOI, its mission in capacity development and training in ocean governance and ocean knowledge dissemination, and its purpose and founding by Professor Elisabeth Mann Borgese.
In view of the long-standing cooperation and complementary interests between the IOI and the IOC, IOI looks forward to continue to work with IOC under Mr Helgesen’s able leadership, to build on past work and to further fulfil and complement mutual aims, most especially on capacity development for Early Career Ocean Professionals (ECOPs) and in the field of Ocean Literacy, and in reaching the goals of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030).