A/HRC/37/79 development assistance (ODA). Despite the increase in the Development Assistance Committee coefficient for OHCHR from 64 per cent to 88 per cent in June 2017, the Board remains persuaded that all contributions to OHCHR in their entirety should be treated as 100 per cent ODA in view of the critical importance that all its work has for sustainable development and the achievement of the 2030 Agenda. IV. Status of funding and donors 42. At its meetings in Geneva and Beirut, the Board was updated on the overall financial status of OHCHR and the financial status of the Voluntary Fund for Technical Cooperation in the Field of Human Rights respectively. The Board also discussed and analysed the status of implementation of the workplan for the Voluntary Fund for 2017 and endorsed it. An analysis of funding trends between 2008 and 2017 (see annex I) shows the continuing decrease in voluntary contributions to the Fund, particularly in the past three years, which continues to have a negative impact on the capacity to respond positively to current needs and demands on the ground. Throughout its visits on the ground over the last four years, all partners have raised with the Board the need for increased presences and programmes on the ground. 43. In 2017, the total expenditure was $12,362,447, substantially less than in previous years owing to a number of reductions in various programmes. The reductions largely corresponded to the closing of a number of presences and a reduction in the number of programmes. By 31 December 2017, the Fund had received a total of $11,002,141 ($2,843,455 earmarked for the Voluntary Fund, $1,669,033 to be allocated to technical cooperation on specific country projects and $6,489,652 allocated to the Fund as unearmarked funds). The Fund provided resources for technical cooperation programmes designed to build strong human rights frameworks at the national level in 28 regions, countries and territories through 14 human rights advisers/human rights mainstreaming projects (in Chad, Kenya, Madagascar, the Niger, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Philippines, Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation, Rwanda, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Timor-Leste and the South Caucasus region (Georgia)); 10 human rights components of peace missions (in Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, GuineaBissau, Haiti, Kosovo, 1 Liberia, Libya, Somalia and the Sudan (Darfur)); and 4 country/stand-alone offices in the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Mauritania, Mexico and the State of Palestine. 44. Through the Fund, OHCHR has facilitated efforts at the country level to incorporate international human rights standards into national laws, policies and practices, including through follow-up to recommendations made by international human rights mechanisms and the development of online mechanisms to facilitate such follow-up. It has also contributed to the establishment and strengthening of national structures, institutions and capacities to ensure adherence to those standards. Activities to strengthen the administration of justice, including support for increasing access capacities for individuals and groups facing discrimination and exclusion and increasing the capacity to promote gender equality and women’s rights and combat inequalities, have also featured prominently in numerous programmes receiving support from the Voluntary Fund. The Board has observed how OHCHR has also strengthened its provision of technical advice, not only for the establishment of national human rights institutions compliant with the Paris Principles, but also for the strengthening of its capacity to respond and act according to such principles in a number of countries. United Nations Resident Coordinators and country teams have continued to see their human rights capacity strengthened by the deployment of human rights advisers and by the development of a number of human rights mainstreaming projects. Detailed information on income and expenditure under the Voluntary Fund, its financial status in 2017 and a list of donors and contributors are annexed to the present report (see annexes II–IV). 1 All references to Kosovo in the present document should be understood to be in the context of Security Council resolution 1244 (1999). 13

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