An Easy Guide to Capacity Assessment for National Human Rights Institutions 3.2. THE PREPARATORY VISIT The preparatory visit enables the CA to be explained to the NHRI’s leaders, senior managers and other staff. They must understand clearly what is involved – the process and the results – and, if the CA is to proceed, they should agree to undertake the exercise on that basis. A preparatory visit of two days, preferrably about four to eight weeks before the actual assessment visit, is important for this. During the preparatory visit the preparatory team briefs the NHRI’s leaders, senior managers and other staff. The team explains the objectives of the CA, the process by which it will be conducted, the time it will take and any other demands it will place on the leaders, managers and staff, and the report they will receive when it is over. The briefing is an opportunity to clarify objectives and process, answer questions and resolve doubts and anxieties. The important message is that the actual CA is a process undertaken by the NHRI as a whole, for the NHRI, and that it is intended to be of direct and immediate benefit. The team must emphasise that the CA will produce surprising and even unwelcome results as it provides a vehicle by which the various views of all NHRI leaders and staff are articulated and presented. NHRI leaders should be assured of their ownership of the final report. They should be aware that the CA can produce surprising and even unwelcome results as it provides a vehicle by which the various views of all NHRI leaders and staff are articulated and presented. It should be stressed that the NHRI alone will decide what response to make to the final report but that the leaders should be committed to giving its proposed strategies and actions full and careful consideration. NHRI leaders should understand that one of their responsibilities will be making a formal response to the report and then reporting annually on the implementation of accepted strategies. During the preparatory visit, the NHRI should decide whether to proceed with the CA and, if so, it should provide its formal agreement. The preparatory team will provide the NHRI with a draft Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the NHRI and the APF, setting out the responsibilities of the NHRI, the organisations assisting the CA and the CA team. Once the NHRI formally agrees to the CA, the NHRI appoints a senior person to be Liaison Officer for the CA team. The Liaison Officer works with the preparatory team during the remainder of the preparatory visit. The Liaison Officer and the preparatory team: • identify key background documents that the CA team should read and analyse before the assessment visit • identify outside stakeholders to be interviewed during the assessment visit, individually or in groups, usually no more than eight interviews of about an hour each • discuss the logistics for the assessment visit, including whether the CA team will need to travel to regional centres and some staff will need to travel to meet the team • develop a draft program for the assessment visit • determine whether interpretation and translation will be required. During the preparatory visit the preparatory team also makes contact, where relevant and appropriate, with the local UN Country Team (UNCT), generally UNDP and any local office of OHCHR, usually through the UNDP Resident Representative. 11