IOI | Board of Directors holds annual meeting in Namibia

The IOI Board of Directors held its annual meeting in Windhoek from 21 to 23 September 2015. The Office of IOI President and Namibia Ombudsman John R. Walters hosted this event and welcomed the members of the Board in Namibia.

At the annual meeting of the IOI Board of Directors, held in Windhoek (Namibia) and generously hosted by the office of Namibia Ombudsman and IOI President John R. Walters, the Board looked at developments and achievements made in the past membership year and discussed projects and priorities for the year to come.

In Namibia the IOI Board welcomed ten new members from the African, the Asian and the Caribbean and Latin American Region to its community; five of which were accepted as Voting members of the IOI.

The Board furthermore confirmed the Office of the Ombudsman of Thailand as the host of the 11th IOI World Conference, which will be held in Bangkok in November 2016. Despite some concern about the current political situation in Thailand, the Board reiterated its full support for the Office of the Ombudsman as it is seen as a fundamental building block in rebuilding democracy.

It was unanimously agreed that the IOI’s successful program of regional subsidies will again be made available to members for the membership year 2015/2016. 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 membership year as well as a workshop to discuss the problem of Ombudsman facing difficult circumstances, reprisals or even threats and to establish ways for the IOI to support colleagues facing such times of crisis.