National Mechanisms for Reporting and Follow-up 2 The engagement capacity of a national mechanism is its capacity to: ¡¡ engage and liaise with international and regional human rights bodies (in the context of reporting, interactive dialogue, or facilitation of visits by special procedure mandate-holders or the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture); and ¡¡ organize and centrally facilitate the preparation of reports to international and regional human rights mechanisms, and of responses to communications, follow-up questions and recommendations or decisions received from such mechanisms. This requires, dedicated capacity and knowledge, for example through the establishment of a permanent Executive Secretariat with trained staff knowledgeable of each international human rights mechanism, but also through the development of standardized internal reporting guidelines, procedures or checklists for organizing Special Procedures visits. The coordination capacity of a national mechanism is its ability and authority to disseminate information, and to organize and coordinate information-gathering and data collection from government entities, but also from other State actors such as the National Statistics Office, Sustainable Development Goals implemention focal point or lead “agency”, parliament and the judiciary, for reporting and follow-up to recommendations. This requires for example a solid mandate, terms of reference, or annual work plans involving all relevant Ministries. The consultation capacity of a national mechanism for reporting and follow-up is its ability to foster and lead consultations with the country’s NHRI(s) and civil society including the most marginalized groups. This could take the form of a dedicated focal point for liaising with other stakeholders, regular meetings with different stakeholders, the establishment of an e-mail mailing list for information sharing, and so forth. An NMRF is a government structure and thereby differs from a national human rights institution (NHRI), which is independent and has a mandate to promote and protect human rights at national level and to submit recommendations to the Government. The information management capacity of a national mechanism for reporting and follow-up is its ability to: ¡¡ track the issue of recommendations and decisions by the international and regional human rights mechanisms; ¡¡ systematically capture and thematically cluster (including against Sustainable Development Goals) these recommendations and decisions in a user-friendly spreadsheet or database; ¡¡ identify responsible government ministries or agencies for their implementation; ¡¡ develop human rights recommendations implementation plans, including timelines, with relevant ministries to facilitate such implementation, which can feed into National Human Rights Action Plans or Sustainable Development Goals implementation plans; and ¡¡ manage information on implementation of treaty provisions and recommendations, including with a view to preparing the next periodic report. The need for clustering and managing information around implementation of all recommendations has indeed become increasingly evident for countries confronted with several hundreds or even thousands of recommendations. 21