74 ANNUAL REPORT 2011 Context, respect and patience There are many good reasons why the idea of an ombudsman was quickly accepted in New Zealand and just as many good reasons why Vietnam is not immediately opening an ombudsman office. The differences in the legal, historical, cultural and also economic context are striking, as pointed out by Madame Ba at the Hanoi conference. In its modern version, the ombudsman institution has become an integral part of a liberal, Western democratic principle. The focus is on protecting the individual and the individual’s fundamental rights as a citizen in a system where the powers of the executive are increasing. It is therefore not surprising that Denmark adopted the basic concept from Sweden in the post-war years, nor is it surprising that the concept is normally exported at the very time when overall administrative reforms are implemented – as in the case of New Zealand and in a way also in Vietnam at the moment. Despite the major and striking differences between ‘systems’ globally, the website of the International Ombudsman Institute (IOI) reveals that 122 institutions are members – from all over the world. However, the map of the distri­ bution of national ombudsmen is not a uniform colour all over the world. Red is dominant in Europe (with the notable exceptions of Germany and Italy), ­Africa, Central and South America and large parts of Oceania. By contrast, there are large white areas – without ombudsmen – in especially the Arab world. Under the Arab Initiative, the Danish Ombudsman participated in a project in Jordan to establish an ombudsman institution. As so often before, one person drove the project right through to the new institution, in this case the Danish Consul General in Amman, Mr Kawar. As a result of the collaboration, Jordan established an ombudsman office in 2008/2009, and today the Jordanian Ombudsman has become a member of the International Ombudsman Institute, which imposes certain basic conditions of admission. The basic thoughts and conditions for an ombudsman and his work resulted in many and major discussions in Jordan. As in Vietnam, we were faced with fitting a basic concept into a very different framework. A key issue in these situations is usually the theme of the ombudsman’s independence – how much freedom is the ombudsman given to monitor the exercise of power and to influence the administrative culture effectively?