IAPH looks to young talent from Scotland and South Africa to boost work with IMO, and on World Ports Sustainability Program

Rhona Macdonald Sisangile Nduna
Rhona Macdonald and Sisangile Nduna

Rhona Macdonald to focus on IAPH’s policy and project work with IMO in London; Sisangile Nduna to work on port barometer metrics and World Ports Sustainability Program governance and ethics agenda

This month, IAPH welcomes two new colleagues, boosting the organization’s overall geographical spread (London to add to Tokyo, Antwerp and Athens) as well as injecting young, international talent into the team.

Rhona Macdonald (MSc Sustainability and Environmental Studies, 2020) will join with a dual role, dividing her work between IAPH as Policy and IMO Liaison Officer and the British Ports Association (BPA) as Sustainability Advisor, based at the latter organization’s office in central London. Also qualified with a Master of Arts in International Business and Modern Languages, Rhona has worked as a Sustainability Intern for the environmental NGO Ninth Wave Global and as Circular Economy Researcher for Zero Waste Scotland. In her work for IAPH, Rhona will focus on supporting Technical Director Antonis Michail on all policy and project work pertaining to the International Maritime Organization. One such example is IAPH’s strategic partnership agreement on the GreenVoyage2050 project of the Government of Norway and IMO which aims to transform the shipping industry towards a lower carbon future.

Sisangile Nduna (Master of Applied Economic Sciences, 2016) is Assistant Researcher at the University of Antwerp’s Faculty of Business Economics, where she is currently completing her PhD in Maritime Transportation with a dissertation on performance of seaports in the Hamburg-Le Havre range. Through an agreement with the University of Antwerp, Sisangile will work with us this year on a new port tracker concept which IAPH is developing as follow up to the WPSP-IAPH Port Economic Impact Barometer and will also contribute to the agenda of the World Ports Sustainability Program. This includes the further development of the IAPH Women’s Forum and the Association’s African focus, which includes ‘The Century of Africa’ stream at the upcoming IAPH World Ports Conference in June.

IAPH Managing Director Patrick Verhoeven commented: “I very much welcome Rhona and Sisangile to the team. Thanks to the partnerships with our associate members British Ports Association and University of Antwerp we have been able to bring new talent to the organization, which will enable us to increase our service to members and widen our international footprint.”

Story contact : Victor Shieh – IAPH Communications Director

Email : victor.shieh@iaphworldports.org

Tel : + 32 473 980 855

About IAPH

Founded in 1955, the International Association of Ports and Harbors (IAPH) is a non-profit-making global alliance of 170 ports and 140 port-related organisations covering 90 countries. Its member ports handle more than 60 percent of global maritime trade and around 80 percent of world container traffic. IAPH has consultative NGO status with several United Nations agencies, including the IMO. Through its knowledge base and access to regulatory bodies, IAPH aims to facilitate energy transition, accelerate digitalization and assist in improving overall resilience of its member ports in a constantly changing world. In 2018, IAPH established the World Ports Sustainability Program (WPSP). Guided by the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, it aims to unite sustainability efforts of ports worldwide by sharing best practices through its project portfolio and collaborative partnerships.