A/HRC/20/25 rights institutions (NHRIs) and civil society organizations.4 However, financial and human resource constraints prevent most mandate holders from engaging in repeated visits to States, or conducting other follow-up. 7. The importance of following up on country mission recommendations cannot be overstated. A follow-up visit is the best way to assess the developments in the country with regard to past recommendations in situ. However, in the light of budget constraints that limit the number of each special procedure’s missions to two per year, the Special Rapporteur decided to use existing resources to explore countries not previously visited by the mandate. 8. In order to carry out the follow-up initiative, the Special Rapporteur employed the more feasible alternative, already explored by some mandate holders, of requesting States and other stakeholders to provide information regarding her recommendations following her country visits. 9. To facilitate the assessment, the Special Rapporteur sent detailed country-specific questionnaires to the Governments of Ecuador, Zambia, Bangladesh, Viet Nam and Ireland5 requesting specific information about progress and challenges in the implementation of her recommendations. The Special Rapporteur wishes to express her appreciation to the Governments of Viet Nam and Ecuador for responding to the questionnaires and for their continuing dialogue with her. 10. The fact that the Governments of Zambia, Bangladesh and Ireland did not respond to the questionnaire was one of the major obstacles encountered in assessing the developments following the country visits. The extent and depth of the present review was also substantially affected in some cases by the lack of publicly available information on Government policies and the absence of up-to-date disaggregated data on the situation of those vulnerable to poverty in the different countries. 11. Information requests were also sent to the respective NHRIs, civil society organizations and United Nations country teams. Their responses varied greatly in terms of the level of engagement, depth and scope of the information provided, coordination between various actors, and timely submission of the information. 12. Three of the countries examined have NHRIs (Ecuador, Zambia and Ireland). While Bangladesh also has an NHRI, economic, social and cultural rights are not within the scope of its mandate. However, only the NHRI of Ireland was able to submit comprehensive information. United Nations agencies also played a key role in submitting data and analysis for each of the countries, and in facilitating access to information not otherwise easily obtained. 13. The work of civil society organizations had been essential in planning the visits, gathering information and visiting communities during the visits, and disseminating the country visit reports. In some countries, advocacy efforts to promote the awareness of country visit recommendations had played a critical role in the progress made. Nonetheless, the engagement of civil society organizations in the preparation of the present report varied greatly by country and capacity. The Special Rapporteur extends her gratitude to those 4 5 4 See follow-up reports of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions (A/HRC/17/28/Add.6); the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (A/HRC/13/39/Add.6); and the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context (A/HRC/10/7/Add.2 and A/HRC/13/20/Add.2). The reports on Timor-Leste and Paraguay are presented as addenda to the present report (see A/HRC/20/25/Add.1 and 2) and are not included in the current analysis.