Informal lunch meeting for States from the African region

On 26 June 2014, the Director of the IOPC Funds hosted an informal lunch meeting for the UK-based representatives of African States.
This meeting was well attended with 14 guests representing 11 States. In addition to the States’ representatives, the Director welcomed some special guests, including Dr Thomas Mensah, former Assistant Secretary-General of IMO and Mr Frederick Kenney, the newly appointed Director of the Legal Affairs and External Relations Division at IMO with his team. The representatives had the opportunity to ask questions and to exchange views on various subjects such as the running of Funds’ meetings, oil reporting, the contributions system, incidents and claims handling and the status of the HNS Convention.
In a welcoming statement the Director took the opportunity to remind those States present that the work of the Funds was dependent on the active participation of its Member States. He drew attention to the importance of States ensuring that they meet their obligations with respect to oil reporting and contributions. He also referred to the new Claims Information Pack and explained that the new Claims Manual and all the claims-related publications have been put together to ensure consistency and to facilitate access to the guidelines for potential claimants.
A number of valuable new contacts were made during the meeting. Attendees were reminded that the next meetings of the IOPC Funds governing bodies would take place from 20-24 October 2014.
The next regional lunch meeting is planned to be take place in late 2014.