Part Three STRATEGIC PLAN PREPARATION PROCESS T he “Strategic Plan 2004-2008” is an outcome of the invaluable experience of the Commission during its first three years and the analysis of the feedback, especially on key human rights issues received from all the stakeholders. The priorities have been set, based on human and financial resources that are available and likely to be available to address them in the plan period. As the first step for its preparation, a seven-member Strategic Planning Committee was formed with one of the Members as the Coordinator of the Committee. A retreat of Members and staff was organized to review the existing mission and vision statement of the Commission and prepare the revised version. At the retreat, the staff and Members identified the core values that would guide the work of the Commission in pursuant to its purpose, along with immediate, mid-term and longterm human rights issues faced by Nepal. Analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) was also carried out, and in addition, a separate half-day SWOT analysis was conducted with the Commissioners. A workshop with the staff was organized to identify key external stakeholders. Following that, a stakeholder survey questionnaire, both in electronic and print form, was prepared in English and in Nepali and distributed to various stakeholders, e.g., various offices of His Majesty’s Government, commissions, Nepalese HRNGOs, independent experts, the judiciary, media, political parties, professional organisations, UN agencies, diplomatic missions, donors and international human rights organisations. Former employees of the Commission were also invited to participate in the process. A half-day special session with the media was organised to assess their perception about the work of the Commission and priority human rights issues were discussed. All total, 153 responses were received from various stakeholders, including significant number of responses from the His Majesty’s Government. Participation of the international community in the process was also encouraging. As budgetary constraints - a major hurdle for effective functioning - have not permitted the Commission to follow a systematic approach to address human rights issues, most of the interventions in the past have been short-term. Therefore, except for a project to monitor the human rights situation that was approved for six months and then extended for two short durations, and one research grant project, there has not been any systematic project intervention and evaluation of effectiveness of the interventions. Lessons learnt by the organisation (see below) while implementing regular activities and the “Responding to the Crisis Project”, as well as the recommendations from external consultants on the design of the Project form the basis for the new strategic plan. Also, the staff and Members participated in an organisational self-assessment exercise to examine where the organisation stands 7