Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions THE OFFICE OF THE OMBUDSMAN, SAMOA, FEBRUARY 2014 The Office of the Ombudsman of Samoa was the first Pacific Island NHRI to undertake a CA, one year after becoming the NHRI for Samoa. The CA team, led by the APF, was assisted by OHCHR, UNDP and (for the first time in a CA) the Pacific Ombudsman’s Alliance. The CA was carried out at the request of the Ombudsman, who saw the value in such an exercise during the early stages of the NHRI while it was seeking to fulfil its new mandate. The CA team worked closely with the existing staff to assess where additional resources, knowledge and skills were required, making recommendations that three further staff should be sought. The process also proved to be valuable in strengthening links with external agencies and NGOs. By seeking the views of external interested parties, the CA team gained a perspective on the expectations of the Office that helped to form the recommendations and strengthened relationships with and understanding of the Office. 3.4.7. Prepare the first draft report and present it to the NHRI The CA team spends the last days of the assessment visit preparing the first ‘rough draft’ of the report. The first draft report contains: 1. background information on the CA, including: 1.1 objectives of the CA 1.2 composition of the team 1.3 CA methodology 1.4 basic information about the NHRI. 2. findings of the CA, including: 2.1 information from the document review 2.2 information from the stakeholder interviews 2.3 qualitative analysis from the focus group discussions 2.4 quantitative data and analysis from the questionnaires 2.5 capacity challenges and issues identified. 3. strategies and actions for improving effectiveness and efficiency in fulfilling the institutional mandate. The findings section of the report must accurately reflect the perspectives of the NHRI’s leaders, senior managers and staff expressed in the focus group discussions and the questionnaires. These perspectives will be diverse, coming as they do from people at all levels of the organisation and located in all areas. The findings will often include information that is difficult for the NHRI’s leaders to accept. That is especially so in larger NHRIs, that is, those with over 150 staff, and in NHRIs with regional offices. In these institutions staff are dispersed and the leaders will usually not have regular, day to day contact with most of them. Significant differences of perspective inevitably arise and the leaders may be unaware of the nature and extent of the differences until the CA team provides a comprehensive report of the results of the CA. The nature and extent of the differences may come as a surprise to the leaders and may be difficult for the leaders to accept. The CA team needs to prepare for this and assist the NHRI leaders to understand the varying perspectives. 38