By Jorge Duran *

I seize this opportunity to reiterate my admiration for the work of the four women at the Secretariat of the Inter-American Committee on Ports (CIP). We call them the CIP Dream Team, for their professionalism, dedication, positive attitude, continuous idea generation and insight into many facets of the varied port priorities in different parts of the hemisphere. And so, I use this occasion to congratulate and thank each of them for their unique contributions to CIP’s projects and their delivery of programmes designed to benefit the port sector of the Americas.

Mona Swoboda’s contributions to CIP’s work since 2014, particularly in the implementation of technical assistance projects in the Caribbean region, is invaluable. Mona stood up to the challenges of finding methods by which to deliver CIP projects. Mona Swoboda’s contributions to CIP’s work since 2014, particularly in the implementation of technical assistance projects in the Caribbean region, is invaluable. Mona stood up to the challenges of finding methods by which to deliver CIP projects. She innovated and implemented a new financing mechanism with the Caribbean Development Bank and, under her leadership, the CIP has been able to implement three port development projects in the Caribbean:• Improved Disaster Risk Management for Ports in the Caribbean, which has produced a Model Operation Emergency Plan available for free to all (at www.portalcip.org);• Situation Analysis and Development of a Roadmap for the Establishment of a Port Community System (PCS) in Barbados; and,• Feasibility Study for the Establishment of an Electronic Single Window for Trade in Belize Project.

Mona has also effectively managed our relationships with private sector partners across the Americas.

Montserrat (Montse) Ambriz is entirely responsible for the political relationships with National Port Authorities and their Diplomatic Missions at the OAS. Her attention to detail and her consummate writing skills are invaluable assets for her responsibility for CIP’s political documents, such as Resolutions or official reports. Montse possesses in-depth knowledge of political intricacies and complexities. Montserrat (Montse) Ambriz is entirely responsible for the political relationships with National Port Authorities and their Diplomatic Missions at the OAS. Her attention to detail and her consummate writing skills are invaluable assets for her responsibility for CIP’s political documents, such as Resolutions or official reports. Montse possesses in-depth knowledge of political intricacies and complexities. In this regard, she has been mainly responsible for the approval sought for every Resolution presented at our ministerial meetings. She has a knack for understanding what is desired and then translating that into political language.Montse’s special inter-personal skills have been of tremendous benefit to CIP. She is instrumental in collecting the annual dues from member states, so vital for CIP operations. And, moreover, she manages CIP scholarship programmes in France and Spain.

Sabina (Sabi) Malnis comes to mind at the mention of the CIP scholarship programmes. Thanks to her successful efforts, the CIP was able to grow its Training and Scholarship Programme exponentially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sabina’s dedication and innovative thinking allowed us to meet the challenge with great success. She is responsible for the outstanding growth – from 274 scholarships in 2019 (pre-pandemic), to 403 in 2020, and a record 840 in 2021, right in the thick of the dislocations created by pandemic.Sabina (Sabi) Malnis comes to mind at the mention of the CIP scholarship programmes. Thanks to her successful efforts, the CIP was able to grow its Training and Scholarship Programme exponentially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sabina’s dedication and innovative thinking allowed us to meet the challenge with great success. She is responsible for the outstanding growth – from 274 scholarships in 2019 (pre-pandemic), to 403 in 2020, and a record 840 in 2021, right in the thick of the dislocations created by pandemic.Sabi was able to enlist the collaboration of several key actors, including the Port Authority of Peru, while also contributing academic plans and engaging instructors. As if such accomplishments were not enough, she took on the task of drafting annual work plans with our partners so as to streamline CIP operations. And she has promoted CIP collaborative relations by drafting new Memoranda of Understanding for signing. As a direct result of Sabi’s work, the CIP has established alliances with academic institutions, international organisations and port authorities.

Mónica (Gis) Blanco is yet another CIP Dream Team member who stood up to the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. Gis is just full of ideas. She is super-creative, and has been an important factor in the successful implementation of both the CIP Portal and our webinar series. For everything that needs to be done, whether creating a webpage in the CIP Portal for a new project, or, designing a banner for a webinar or one of our Hemispheric Conferences, she always presents at least three super-cool options. Gis is solely responsible for the CIP’s institutional image, within and outside of the OAS. Her work for the CIP Portal can only be described as “essential”. Gis is not only a creative powerhouse, she has been successful in the administrative aspects of CIP operations. Even while organising webinars, she maintains work relationships with CIP’s strategic partners sending invitations, coordinating speakers, and even stepping up to moderate sessions, if the need arises. Thanks to Gis, we have, to date, offered 46 webinars on myriad topics relevant to port operations, thus exposing more than 8,000 port personnel from the Caribbean and Latin America to best practices and knowledge transfer.