Thuy Doan-Smith, APF Secretariat

Eight years ago Thuy Doan-Smith walked into the office of the APF Secretariat and got straight to work. “I was joining a very small team and those first few months were just a blur of activity,” she recalled.

A recent university graduate in both social sciences and international studies, Thuy immediately found herself coordinating a major human rights conference, organising the next APF annual meeting in India and setting up the fledgling organisation’s financial and administration systems.

“A few months before I arrived the APF was established as a separate legal entity,” Thuy said.

“Previously the Australian Human Rights Commission had hosted the APF Secretariat but now we had to establish and manage our own systems and procedures. It was a job that just needed to be done.”

Within a short time, Thuy was given another major challenge: to liaise with donor organisations and secure ongoing funding for the APF’s growing range of training programs and capacity-building services for national human rights institutions and governments in the region.

The need to ensure regular and consistent financial support was an ever-present issue for the APF, said Thuy, who took on the role of Development Manager.

“At the time there wasn’t the same level of awareness that there is today about national human rights institutions,” she said.

“So one of the key challenges we faced was explaining to new donors what national human rights institutions are, how they function and the independent role that they play to promote and protect human rights at the country level.

“We could then describe the unique role of the APF to support and strengthen national institutions in the region and to provide advice to governments that wanted to establish independent national institutions.”

Crucial partners

According to Thuy, a key reason that donors have supported the APF is that no other human rights organisation has the same reach and influence across the broad span of the Asia Pacific region.

“Over the years, the APF has also developed a proven track record in delivering what it sets out to do,” she said. “Of course, this wouldn’t be possible without the support of our donors. They really are crucial partners in our work.”

It is a relationship which is set to be strengthened following a comprehensive joint donor review of the APF, which was completed earlier this year by an independent consultant.

“The review was a very useful experience because it systematically went through all the objectives of the APF to assess whether or not we were meeting our goals and whether we were doing so in a way that used donor funding effectively,” said Thuy.

“While it identified areas where we can continue to develop and improve, such as monitoring and evaluation, the overall result was a very positive assessment of the APF’s work and the management of the organisation.”

Thuy expects that a primary benefit to come out of the review will be greater harmonisation among donor organisations, including more synchronised funding cycles and more streamlined reporting processes.

“This will go a long way to ensuring financial stability during the next stage of the APF’s development,” she said.

“It also means the APF can plan ahead with greater certainty, especially with the number of member institutions set to grow and, with that, increased demand for our training programs and other services.”

Motivation

Born in Vietnam, Thuy spent most of her early life in a refugee camp in Macau. Her two brothers were born in the camp before the family, including her grandfather, was sponsored to come to Australia.

“We arrived in the country when I was almost five years old,” she said, “and throughout my life I’ve been drawn to working in the area of human rights.”

Having worked tirelessly in the APF Secretariat for many years, Thuy says her motivation comes from reflecting on the different questions that donors ask her.

“Is the APF still necessary? Does the work we do make a genuine difference? For me the answer to those questions continues to be ‘yes’. There is still no other human rights organisation in the region that does what we do,” she said.

“I also take a lot of personal satisfaction from being able to build positive, long-standing relationships with donors and support the APF to continue to do it its unique work.”