An Easy Guide to Capacity Assessment for National Human Rights Institutions There should be around 12 people in each discussion group but certainly no more than 15. Where required, the discussions should be interpreted to ensure that participants and team members all understand what is being said and all are free to speak and say what they wish. Each discussion will take about 90 minutes or about two hours if interpretation is required. The interviews with the external stakeholders ask the first two of the three questions asked of internal groups. The purpose of the external stakeholder interviews is to validate the findings from the focus group discussions with the NHRI leaders and staff and from the documentation previously provided to the CA team. It is not to obtain a performance evaluation of the NHRI. The program of external interviews can include both individual interviews and focus group discussions. Focus group discussions may be better than individual interviews for certain categories of external stakeholders. Following the completion of the focus group discussions, the NHRI’s core capacity issues are identified. These issues will be the basis of the questionnaires that provide the quantitative component of the CA process, in addition to providing another opportunity for individual qualitative comments. The CA team prepares a list of the most significant capacity issues to emerge from the discussions and finalises the list collectively, in consultation with the NHRI’s Liaison Officer. The list should gender equality and gender mainstreaming issues. In conducting the focus group discussions and identifying the core capacity issues the CA team should ensure that internal and external gender issues are addressed. Integrating gender elements into the CA process helps the NHRI to translate and instil key gender concepts into its mandate, functions and programs. It provides important opportunities to identify and implement long term strategies to strengthen the way gender issues are approached within the institution. The issues identified for the questionnaires should be the most important issues raised in the discussions. The CA team should ensure that the number of issues is strictly limited so that the task of completing the questionnaire is not excessively onerous or time-consuming. Generally the CA team will identify about 12 or 13 critical capacity issues but the number should never exceed 15. The CA questionnaire contributes further to the qualitative component of the CA and provides the quantitative component. One page of the questionnaire is prepared for each core capacity issue identified for the NHRI. For each issue respondents are asked to provide: • a rating between zero and five for the current capacity of the NHRI on that issue (current capacity) • evidence to support that current rating of the NHRI’s capacity • another rating between zero and five for the capacity on that issue that the NHRI must have in five years’ time if it is to do its work effectively (required capacity) • recommendations for action to increase the capacity on that issue from the current capacity to the required capacity. All NHRI leaders and staff are asked to complete a questionnaire. Wherever possible, the questionnaire is completed online, using an online survey site, usually Survey Monkey. Online surveys can be completed in English and also in a local language if the script is available. Where online completion is not possible or difficult, the questionnaire can be completed in hardcopy form. Again the hardcopy questionnaire will be available in English and, where necessary and possible, in a local language. The completion of the questionnaire generally takes 30 to 60 minutes. Once collected, the qualitative data from the focus group discussions and the questionnaires and the quantitative data from the questionnaires are analysed and crosschecked. The quantitative data are the ratings of current and required future capacity given by respondents to the questionnaires for each core capacity issue. The difference between the current capacity and the required future capacity is the capacity gap, that is, the additional capacity the leaders and staff consider is required for the NHRI to function effectively and efficiently. CD strategies and actions are needed, particularly where the capacity gap is large, to help the NHRI reach the required future capacity in the timeframe identified. 13