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Webinar on Systemic Investigations
On 8 June 2021 the African Ombudsman Research Centre (AORC), in collaboration with the International Ombudsman Institute (IOI), organized an online discussion on the topic of “Systemic Investigations”.
Systemic investigations are conducted when Ombudsman institutions investigate government activities and practices on their own initiative, to ensure that policies and procedures are being followed. The aim of systemic investigations is to address systemic problems with a view to improving the public administration and to hold it accountable.
Speakers at this webinar included Ms Arlene Brock, former Ombudsman for Bermuda and former Director of AORC, who spoke the purpose of conducting systemic investigations. Malawi Ombudsman Martha Chizuma discussed what a systemic investigation entails and covered its methodology in more details. Deputy Ombudsman Barbara Finlay, from the Office of the Ontario Ombudsman in Canada provided the office’s vast experience on how to plan and conduct systemic investigations.
The webinar raised a lot of interest in the international Ombudsman community with more than 300 participants together from all over the world. For those of you who did not have the opportunity to watch the webinar life, you may re-watch the video record on YouTube. Records and presentations of this and previous webinars are also available on the AORC Website.
