Capacity Assessment Manual for National Human Rights Institutions The members of the CA team should be consistent throughout the CA process. Experience with some CAs to date has shown that having members come and go wastes time and makes it difficult to develop consensual approaches and the best strategies and actions. Continuity is ensured when the team members commit to the dates for each step of the process upon their appointment and then, with NHRI confirmation, adhere strictly to those dates. Of course an emergency may arise that necessitates a team member leaving the CA team before the CA assessment visit has been completed. In those circumstances the member should discuss the situation with the team leader, including her or his contribution to the drafting of the CA report, before leaving the team. 3.3.3. Preparations The Liaison Officer should collect the documents identified in the preparatory visit and provide them to the CA team electronically as soon as possible after the preparatory visit. The assessment visit is intensive, with long hours and little time outside meetings, and so the CA team reads and analyses the documents before the visit as part of its preparation for the visit. The documents provide a basic understanding of the NHRI’s mandate, legal framework and authority, and give a sense of the technical and functional capacities the NHRI needs to operate effectively. Team members can make provisional lists of possible core issues to be addressed during the assessment visit based on these documents. (A list of the background documents that should be collected and reviewed can be found at Appendix 4.) The schedule for the assessment visit should be finalised and confirmed between the Liaison Officer and the CA team leader before the assessment visit. The Liaison Officer takes responsibility for the in-country logistics of the assessment visit, including arranging the schedule of discussion groups with NHRI leaders, managers and staff and the appointments for interviews with the identified external stakeholders (where necessary, with the assistance of the UNDP Country Office). The internal discussion groups should be formed well in advance of the assessment visit so that each NHRI leader, manager and staff person knows the time and day for that person’s group to meet. The Liaison Officer should also arrange a separate focus discussion group for female staff members in addition to their participation in the general discussion groups. The Liaison Officer should also arrange and confirm in-country accommodation for the team members and internal flights if required to enable the team to participate in discussion groups with all staff. 3.4. THE ASSESSMENT VISIT The assessment visit is very intensive. It is the focal period of the whole CA. Good preparation can reduce the pressure during the assessment period but the team should expect a very intensive schedule. Typically the assessment visit is conducted over two weeks but in a very large NHRI it may extend to three weeks. During the assessment visit the CA team: • participates in focus group discussions with all NHRI leaders, senior managers and other staff, beginning from day one and taking three or four days in a small NHRI and up to ten days in a large NHRI • participates in a separate focus group discussion with female staff to ensure that internal and external gender issues and perspectives are identified • conducts interviews with individual NHRI leaders and staff where requested and possible • conducts interviews and meetings with external stakeholders, after the internal groups discussions have been completed • identifies the core capacity issues that have arisen in the discussion groups, ensuring the inclusion of gender equality and gender mainstreaming issues • prepares the questionnaire, for the NHRI leaders and staff to complete, to provide quantitative ratings and qualitative comments on core capacity issues Chapter 3: The recommended steps in conducting a capacity assessment for a national human rights institution | 25