Journal of Safety Science and Resilience 2 (2021) 101–110 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Safety Science and Resilience journal homepage: http://www.keaipublishing.com/en/journals/journal-of-safety-science-and-resilience/ Simple, intuitive key performance indicators for ﬂag state performance and its pilot application in Latin-America Anish Arvind Hebbar ∗ , Santiago Juan Geymonat World Maritime University, Fiskehamnsgatan 1, Malmö 211 18, Sweden a r t i c l e i n f o Keywords: Flag state performance Key performance indicators KPI Performance measurement Implementation Flag state implementation Implementation of IMO instruments a b s t r a c t The presence of sub-standard ships has been a long-standing concern in the maritime domain and a slew of measures are implemented to tide over the problem. Measurement is a key to verifying the success of measures adopted to enhance maritime safety and protect the marine environment. While there is an abundance of literature based on Port State Control inspections it is argued that in addition to the prevailing indicators of ﬂag State performance deeper insights are to be gained by exploring indicators in other areas such as ﬁndings of IMO member State audits. This paper proposes simple and intuitive indicators in conjunction with existing indicators to identify trends in ﬂag State performance and explores application of the indicators to a select set of member States in Latin-America region. The paper concludes that the proposed indicators have the potential for global application. 1. Introduction to trends in implementation of IMO instruments as a ﬂag state There is no disputing the fact that there is a strong link between sub-optimal performance and inadequate implementation and enforce- ment of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) instruments by member States. Measuring performance is a tool to identify status of im- plementation of instruments, benchmark improvements and maintain self-improvement. Thus, for example, the European Commission as part of Impact Assessment for updating Directive 2009/21/EC on compli- ance with Flag State requirements seeks to apply modern and transpar- ent techniques to measure performance of ﬂags, both for the maritime administration and for the registered ﬂeet [1]. Since the turn of the millennium, literature on member State per- formance with regard to the fulﬁlment of obligations under IMO instru- ments has continued to bring up several persisting issues such as open registries with inadequate control over ships coupled with owners seek- ing to decrease costs, delegation to Recognised Organisations (ROs) with inadequate oversight, internationalisation of employment partners, port state control as escape route, possible lack of a proper evaluation and re- view system in member States for measurement of performance, human and ﬁnancial resource constraints in developing countries in building an evaluation system, and nations that have recently forayed into the maritime sector facing challenges in observing international standards, etc. [2]. ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: ah@wmu.se (A.A. Hebbar), w1802429@alumni.wmu.se (S.J. Geymonat). Eﬀective implementation of international standards and regulations has been directly linked to the willingness of ﬂag States. Based on empir- ical evidence, several studies in the past have suggested that ﬂag States are not discharging their duties and responsibilities fully and eﬀectively as envisaged in the IMO instruments and have presented the string of continuing incidents as a testimony to the failure of ﬂag States [2–4]. Performance relates to the extent to which a ﬂag State eﬀectively ex- ercises control over its ships and lack of control by ﬂag States over their ships has been considered to be the main cause for crisis in maritime safety management. Within a 4-catogory classiﬁcation of ﬂag States – national ﬂag State, quasi-national ﬂag State, international ﬂag State and pseudo-national ﬂag State – international and pseudo-national ﬂag States were found to have lower performance than the majority of the national ﬂag States [3] (p.101). Rising globalisation resulting from geo-economic developments dur- ing the second half of the twentieth century provided shipowners with an increasingly ﬂexible and cost-eﬀective option to register their ves- sels in ‘open registries’ instead of the traditional registries [5,6]. These open registries holding about 70% of the world tonnage [7] (p.41) while serving as economic motivation for non-compliance of minimum inter- national standards [8] have faced immense criticism for poor standards resulting from inadequate regulatory control [9]. Flag States, post delegation to ROs under the IMO Convention for Safety of Life at Sea, 1974 (SOLAS), etc. are believed to generally tend to lose sight of their ultimate responsibility and maintain inadequate https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnlssr.2021.06.003 Received 22 March 2021; Received in revised form 25 June 2021; Accepted 26 June 2021 2666-4496/© 2021 China Science Publishing & Media Ltd. 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