Report : From Data to Decisions: Making Seafarer Welfare Visible, Comparable and Actionable

When SSI published the Roadmap to a Sustainable Shipping Industry in 2016, it set a clear direction for safety, welfare and wellbeing across the sector. Ten years on, that ambition has driven real progress. Seafarer welfare is firmly on the industry agenda, supported by a growing body of data, tools and research.

But that progress has developed unevenly. Data, methodologies, and frameworks span multiple sources, making it difficult to form a clear, consistent view of conditions across the sector.

SSI’s mapping, funded by Lloyd’s Register Foundation, brings that landscape together for the first time: what exists, how it aligns, and where the gaps are. Five structural problems emerge consistently:

• No shared welfare KPIs in practice

• A system anchored in lagging indicators that only surfaces risk after harm has occurred

• Weak capture of early warning signals around fatigue, stress and disengagement

• Systemic under-reporting driven by low trust in anonymity

• Welfare and safety governance that remain largely separate, despite mental health being a material driver of safety risk

This mapping gives the industry a shared reference point that has been missing. SSI will continue to work with members across the value chain to develop practical responses to these challenges and drive further progress against the Roadmap. Download the full report here.