BackFor the second time the Sharpening Your Teeth Training for staff members of ombudsman institutions was hosted by the Vienna-based General Secretariat of the I.O.I. Like last year, the training course was presented by Ontario Ombudsman André Marin and his deputy Barbara Finlay. We record our thanks for their continued support in this way.
The three-day training on systemic investigations brought together 37 administrative watchdogs from 23 different countries and five I.O.I. world regions – Africa, Asia, Australasia and Pacific, Caribbean and Latin America and Europe. Participants appreciated the opportunity to be briefed on investigative work in an international setting and to exchange experience with colleagues from diverse legal backgrounds.
Thanks to the I.O.I.’s scholarship system SYT Training courses are also accessible to member institutions with limited resources. This year the I.O.I. along with the City of Vienna was able to fund nine scholarships for participants from Lesotho, Tanzania, Uganda, Mauritius, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Saint Lucia, Sint Maarten and Romania. Since the demand for ombudsman staff training courses is constantly growing, the I.O.I. is planning to organize a third round of SYT Trainings in Vienna in 2012. Dates will be communicated within the next couple of weeks on the I.O.I. website.
