"enhance marine research, exploration, and development by facilitating the exchange of oceanographic data and information between participating member states."

With the advance of oceanography from a science dealing mostly with local processes to one which is also studying ocean basin and global processes, researchers are more critically dependent on the availability of an international exchange system to provide global data and information from all available sources. Additionally, scientists studying local processes benefit substantially from access to data collected by other member states in their area of interest. The economic benefit of obtaining data by exchange as opposed to collecting it oneself is huge.

The success of the IODE programme depends on the cooperation and support of participating IOC Member States, and the involvement of many individual institutions and marine scientists, who contribute not only data, but also the necessary expertise to maintain and further develop the IODE system. Without this national support, funded directly by the Member States, the system could not continue to exist.

Although the system itself is an IOC programme, its specific operational services are provided primarily by World Data Centres (WDCs), National Oceanographic Data Centres (NODCs) and Responsible National Oceanographic Data Centres (RNODC), which also operate under the auspices of the International Council for Science (ICSU). RNODCs are National Oceanographic Data Centres who have accepted special additional responsibilities. These can include specific data types (e.g. Drifting Buoys data) or specific regions (e.g. Southern Oceans).