Resilient Maritime Logistics Website
The Resilient Maritime Logistics website (https://resilientmaritimelogistics.unctad.org) hosts a guidebook for ports aiming at Building Capacity to Manage Risks and Enhance Resilience. It features risk identification, assessment, and management tools and approaches, case studies, good practices and a step-by-step resilience-building process for ports and other relevant maritime supply chain actors. The guidance focuses on three types of resilience-building actions and measures, namely:
- Before a disruption materializes.
- During a disruption.
- After a disruption.
A course structured around six modules and focusing on Port and Maritime Supply Chain Resilience accompanies the guidance on this website. The training will help to better understand the importance of well-functioning maritime supply chains and ports for highly interdependent world economies and the need to build their resilience in the face of heightened, uncertainty and disruptions.
The Resilient Maritime Logistics website and related content and material aim to help stakeholders across the maritime supply chain to better manage risks, prepare in the face of disruptions, ensure effective response measures and enable rapid recovery. Targeted stakeholders include (i) governmental planning and regulatory agencies; (ii) port authorities; (iii) port operators and port management companies; (iv) terminal operators; (v) infrastructure managers; (vi) freight forwarders; (vii) customs authorities; (viii) carriers and shipping companies; (ix) shippers and cargo owners; and (x) inland carriers and inland logistics operators (e.g. dry ports, inland container depots, warehouses, logistics and distribution centres). Collaboration between each of these stakeholders is critical for maritime supply chain agility and resilience-building.
UNCTAD Policy Brief No. 93, Emerging strategies for ports during the pandemic
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has had a significant impact on humankind and on global commerce. Ports and port communities have experienced major changes to normal operating environments.
The strategies used by ports to remain open and continue to facilitate sustainable economic development throughout the pandemic may provide useful lessons for policymakers, particularly in relation to the protocols and innovative measures that have been employed to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on the movement of imports and exports as well as ships’ crew and essential port workers.
Key points:
- Ports are essential facilitators of world trade
- Public health advice is crucial in mitigating the impact of pandemics
- Government policy and regulation is required to support port operations during pandemics
The Model Subregional Agreement on Transport Facilitation
The Model Subregional Agreement on Transport Facilitation has been elaborated on the basis of findings of comparative studies between major subregional agreements on transport facilitation to which various ESCAP member States are parties, conducted in 2014-2015. It has been subsequently reviewed by two regional expert meetings held in 2015 and finalized with incorporation of ESCAP member States’ comments.