A/HRC/26/20 projects was also widely highlighted as being key to establishing and maintaining a fund’s legitimacy and independence. 75. Several different funding governance models were suggested. To avoid potential conflicts of interest involving individual donors, some stakeholders favoured a model whereby governance and resource allocation would be completely independent from donors to a fund. Other stakeholders suggested that involving donors more directly was necessary, both to attract donations, in particular from the private sector, and to ensure effective decision-making and long-term impact. Some suggested that all contributions should be non-earmarked to prevent the necessity of limiting the percentage of overall funding from any individual donor. Others suggested that further consideration should be given to the possibility of earmarked funding given the potential for attracting more donors to specific aspects of a fund’s mandated activities. 76. With respect to the issue of donors providing resources for a fund in addition to their commitments in other areas, some stakeholders suggested that competition for limited resources was inevitable and therefore not a matter for further discussion. Others proposed that more consultation was needed in order to determine the extent to which significant additional financial resources could be secured to support a new fund. From that viewpoint, it was stressed that resources for a fund focused on the implementation of the Guiding Principles should not jeopardize the maintenance of existing funding levels for ongoing human rights activities in other areas. The diversity of views of stakeholders on that issue indicates that more consultation is needed to clarify outstanding questions relating to funding sources. 77. As the Council moves forward in its deliberations, it is noteworthy that there appears to be broad agreement among stakeholders that a new fund would be a useful mechanism to advance implementation of the Guiding Principles and that such a fund should be able to accept financial contributions from any actor, including States, businesses, philanthropic organizations and individuals. There is also broad agreement on the importance of ensuring full transparency of donors and allocation of resources to individual projects as key to establishing and maintaining a fund’s legitimacy and independence. 78. However, as the consultation process has indicated, there remains a diversity of views on a number of core issues, such as the desirable scope of a potential fund’s mandate, criteria for eligibility and governance models, which can only be resolved through further study and multi-stakeholder dialogue. 79. More focused dialogue involving all actors is needed in order to make progress. It is therefore recommended that the High Commissioner for Human Rights lead a multistakeholder consultation process, with the aim of developing further recommendations concerning the establishment of a new fund on implementation of the Guiding Principles. 80. The process should involve all relevant stakeholder groups, including representatives of Governments, the private sector, civil society and grass-roots organizations and the Working Group and other relevant experts from within and outside the United Nations system. The experience of existing United Nations trust funds, publicprivate partnerships and other funding models administered through multi-stakeholder governance structures should inform the process. Existing venues for consultation, such as the Forum on Business and Human Rights, should be utilized to test preliminary proposals with a broad stakeholder base. 16