IOI | Annual meeting of IOI Board of Directors held in Vienna

From 26 – 28 April 2017 the IOI Board of Directors held its annual meeting at the premises of the IOI General Secretariat in Vienna (Austria). In total 19 out of 21 Directors attended this very productive meeting to identify and discuss projects and priorities for the upcoming membership year.

President Peter Tyndall opened the meeting by welcoming the newly elected Directors and expressed his pleasure at the fact that they all were able to attend the annual meeting in Vienna. 

In a very productive meeting the Board of Directors approved Voting membership for six Ombudsman institutions from Africa, Australia, Asia and Europe and established working groups to implement the key goals of the IOI’s first long-term strategic plan.

The Board further agreed that another round of the IOI’s successful regional subsidies programme will be made available to members; a process asking members to submit their respective project proposals will be started by the Secretariat soon.

Another focus of this year’s Board meeting were training initiatives for the upcoming year as well as the introduction of best practice papers on Ombudsman-related matters and the next research project of the IOI: a comparative study on Ombudsman institutions in the African Region, which will be put into practice in close cooperation with the African Ombudsman Research Centre (AORC).

Against the background of the approaching 40th Anniversary of the International Ombudsman Institute, the Board also discussed possible ways to commemorate this occasion throughout the next year.