BackOn 25 March the World Bank and the IOI organized a round table on „The Role of Ombudsman Offices in Promoting Good Governance and Effective Service Delivery“, held at the headquarters of the World Bank in Washington, DC. The IOI was represented at the discussions by its second Vice-President Diane Welborn and Secretary General Günther Kräuter.
“Ombudsman Institutions are gateways for citizens into governments: providing information, mediating conflict, investigating malpractice, and ensuring complaints lead to investigations” said Jeff Thindwa, Manager of the Social Accountability Practice at the World Bank Institute, when opening the ‘Roundtable.
Over 100 World Bank staff members followed the joint invitation by the World Bank Institute, Global Partnership for Social Accountability, the Nordic Trust Fund and the IOI. The round table aimed at raising awareness and better understanding of the concept of ombudsman and the role of IOI and its members with regard to public service delivery, good governance and accountability.
The World Bank just recently published a summary on the event, concluding that “The strong and unanimous message from the Roundtable is that Ombudsman Institutions are increasingly important to the Bank in their quest to build effective, responsive and accountable governance, and we can expect to see more collaboration in the future.” For the full summary please see the PDF below.
