8.3 Knowledge Management

Planning requires research and data, and these in turn require effective information systems to capture, manage and use the data. This group of activities is often collectively called "knowledge management" (KM).

KM is important for any organisation, but NHRIs present special challenges: experience in several countries shows that NHRIs face high staff turnover and of course senior officials such as Commissioners and Ombudsmen change on a regular basis. As new institutions without developed traditions and systems of transferring knowledge and experience, NHRIs can become dependent on individual institutional memory. To avoid these problems, institutions need to develop institutional memory and capacity.8 This can be done by creating information systems to manage data and trends, to generate management information.

Effective KM supports research planning and execution. It begins with good data about the start point (baseline data) and then is used to support the capacity to track progress, evaluate results and store knowledge. Effective knowledge management can, over time, help to identify national trends through situation monitoring, and support the identification of strategic approaches. Good data also supports decisions for NHRI resource allocation for activities such as investigations, policy development and thematic reports on substantive areas of human rights law.

Finally, knowledge management systems are the most important systems for setting and tracking institutional progress towards targets, and this is the basis for both program and institutional evaluation.

8 Carver and Korotaev, "Assessing The Effectiveness of National Human Rights Institutions" 2007. Study Commissioned by the UNDP Regional Centre in Bratislava.