On December 19th and 20th, CILC facilitated a leadership retreat in Bogor, Indonesia, for the leadership of the Ombudsman of Indonesia (ORI) and the National Ombudsman of the Netherlands (NO). The ORI and the NO have had a long-term cooperation spanning over 10 years, and their current cooperation is supported by the Peer 2 Peer 4 Justice program funded by the Dutch Embassy in Jakarta. The topics on the agenda of this meeting were the Venice Principles and mainly Institutional transformation, specifically dealing with the grand design of the Indonesian Ombudsman in relation to the central government of Indonesia. This plan covers the developments in the country for the next 25 years.
Previous years of cooperation focused on applying Propartif or the Fair Treatment Approach (FTA) to handling complaint cases. Propartif was institutionalized at the ORI by 2022. Activities on this topic were finalized with a survey measuring the effectiveness of complaint handling after the application of Propartif from 2017-2022. Since 2023, the CILC and NO have supported ORI in creating their mid- and long-term planning. This started with sessions on how to apply the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at ORI, many operational meetings and finally, the leadership retreat.
During the leadership retreat, the 9 Commissioners of the Ombudsman of Indonesia reflected on the concept of ombuds with the National Ombudsman. Inspired by the Venice Principles, the groups discussed the role of ORI in future transformation, Human Resources Transformation, Digital Transformation and developing trust with government and citizens and finally, how to implement changes in your office. The golden circle of Simon Sinek was a starting point which indicates that it is important to start with the question of why you are doing what you are doing.
The leadership retreat was an informal meeting, and participants spent two intense days exploring together the work and challenges the Ombudsman faces. Often, the size of Indonesia was mentioned as this creates the question for the Ombudsman of how to reach over 270 million people. The meeting ended with a visit to the famous botanical gardens of Bogor and a lot of information that will support the Ombudsman in their effort to contribute to the development of good governance in Indonesia.
In the picture from left to right: Dadan Suharmawijaya, Jemsly Hutabarat, Bobby Hamzar Rafinus, Reinier van Zutphen, Indraza Marzuki Rais, Johannes Widijantoro and Stephan Sjouke