The IMO Assembly, which meets once every two years, adopts the Strategic Plan for the Organization (covering a six-year period), which sets out IMO's mission statement; the trends, developments and challenges presently facing the Organization; and the strategic directions, or objectives, that IMO will pursue to address the identified challenges. The Strategic Plan also contains performance indicators and Key Performance Indicators, which enable the Assembly and the Council to monitor the progress made towards achieving the strategic directions.
The Assembly also adopts the High-level Action Plan of the Organization, which identifies the actions that need to be carried out by IMO towards achieving the strategic directions, as well as the specific outputs that will be delivered during the next biennium as a result of those actions. The High-level Action Plan thus constitutes the Organization's biennial work programme and, consequently, forms the basis of its results-based budget.
The Council monitors closely the progress made in delivering the Organization's planned outputs and the results-based budget, which helps it to report to each Assembly on the totality of work carried out by IMO during a biennium.