Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions government, civil society, the judiciary, academia and any other area of relevance. The CA team and the Liaison Officer also agree on the logistics – when the CA will take place, how the focus discussion groups will be organised, whether interpretation and translation will be required and so on. 2. Capacity assessment by NHRI leaders and staff All NHRI leaders, senior managers and staff are given the opportunity to participate in small discussion groups to express their views on: • what the NHRI does well (present capacity) • what the NHRI needs to do better (required future capacity) • what can be done to increase the capacity from the present level to the required level. These discussion groups enable exchange among participants and identify the key capacity issues for the NHRI. The issues can concern the current and required capacities in relation to: • the external environment in which NHRI works • organisational issues for NHRI • NHRI members and staff. Issues might include: • institutional development: mission and strategy, business processes, human resource management, information and communications technology • institutional management: ability to foster independence of the NHRI, ensure plural representation and strengthen relationships with external stakeholders, develop, communicate and give direction on vision, mission and values based on the universal standards of human rights, and create an environment that motivates and supports right holders including NHRI staff • knowledge: training and education of NHRI staff and rights holders • mutual accountability: capacity to ensure accountability through prevention and enforcement, strengthen national integrity of the NHRI, increase public participation and build collations; increase mobilisation, access to and use of information, work with the international community including the ICC and the APF. The discussions also enable all leaders, managers and staff to contribute their own ideas on how to build the NHRI’s capacity to do its work more effectively. After the conclusion of the group discussions NHRI leaders, managers and staff undertake their individual assessments of the NHRI’s current capacities and required capacities, using a simple questionnaire on the core capacity issues identified in the discussion groups. By providing their ratings for present and required capacities, they reveal the capacity gaps in the organisation and the extent of the gap to be met. The data produced by the questionnaire is both qualitative (what kinds of gaps? how important are they?) and quantitative (how many people see this as a gap? what is the extent of the gap that they see? what can be done to address the gaps?). The questionnaires are completed individually and anonymously. 3. Interviews with key external stakeholders A small number of key external stakeholders are also interviewed, individually or in groups, by the CA team to provide an external perspective on the capacities of the NHRI. These interviews are directed towards an external validation of the internal perspectives on the NHRI’s capacities, current and required. The persons interviewed will not be given or asked to complete the questionnaire but participate in a short interview to provide their overall perceptions and comments. The information collected during the interviews will be shared with the NHRI. 56