Overview Organisational development continues The organizational development process, which started in 2012, continued in 2013. Given the change in the members of the AOB, a workshop for them as well as their respective Chiefs of Cabinet took place in July. Specific work steps were agreed on, which seemed sensible and necessary for the NPM‘s further development. During this process, work on the database for visit reports was also stepped up and a policy was developed as a basis for examinations by the AOB‘s commissions. This draft has been discussed and refined with the commissions since the end of November 2013. Four projects, which the AOB tendered at the beginning of September, formed the core of this process; legal experts from the AOB staff were invited to actively participate in these projects. The first project dealt with defining two key terms which are central to the AOB‘s work: maladministration and human rights violation. The objective of the second project was to look at how the AOB as NPM understands prevention. The third project compiled answers to the question which quality standards the NPM‘s visit reports must observe. A fourth project group prepared a database, with the aim of facilitating the evaluation of the commissions’ findings. All projects were finished successfully with detailed project reports at the end of October. The work was presented to the commissions at the end of November and is being processed further in joint work groups in order to reach uniform definitions and effective standards. More detailed information on the activities of the National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) for the year 2013 are available in a separate report. 2.3.7 International activities International Ombudsman Insitute (IOI) New Secretary General The International Ombudsman Institute (IOI) maintains a global network of around 160 independent ombudsman institutions in more than 90 countries. It is the only global organisation representing the interests of independent monitoring bodies for public administration. The General Secretariat of the IOI has been based within the AOB since 2009. Ombudsman Günther Kräuter was appointed Secretary General of the IOI on 1 July 2013, replacing Peter Kostelka in this role. Two meetings of the IOI Board The Board of the IOI met twice in 2013, and reported on the activities and projects implemented during 2013. Eight ombudsman institutions joined the IOI as new members. As its main focus, the Board defined the development of a long-term strategic plan for the institute in the coming year. This is to be presented at the World Conference in Bangkok in 2016. Extensive training offer As in previous years, the IOI offered its members extensive training and education measures in 2013, thus making an important contribution to increasing its expertise. For instance, the renowned training of Scotland’s Queen Margaret University (QMU) on complaint handling practices was held in Bangkok. An anti-corruption training 22