A/HRC/34/17 5. Subject to availability of funds, the Fund may also support projects seeking to organize training or capacity-building activities for health-care professionals or other service providers, with priority given to applicant organizations that have an ongoing direct assistance project supported by the Fund. These projects may take the form of trainings, workshops, seminars and conferences and peer-to-peer staff exchanges. They are to be conducted primarily for the benefit of the professional staff of the applicant organization. Grant requests for projects involving investigation, research, studies, publications or other similar activities are not admissible. 6. Outside of the regular grants cycle and subject to availability of funds, the Fund can also provide emergency assistance to project proposals submitted through the emergency intersessional procedure, outlined in the guidelines for the Fund. Emergency grants may be awarded in exceptional circumstances such as a sudden increase in the number of victims of torture to be assisted owing to a humanitarian crisis, including armed conflict, war or natural disaster, subject to availability of funds. Emergency grants may also be awarded when such crisis results in a grave situation that makes it impossible for an organization to continue to provide assistance to beneficiaries (e.g., destruction of premises or offices), for the purpose of enabling the organization to resume its activities. B. Monitoring and evaluation of grants 7. As a rule, pre-screening visits to projects are undertaken before a grant is awarded to a new project proposal. Regular monitoring visits to ongoing projects for which the renewed support of the Fund is being sought are also conducted to assess the implementation and impact of the projects funded. An internal guide on conducting visits to projects that have been funded, or are to be funded, was developed in 2013 by the secretariat of the Fund to enhance verification methodology and ensure coherence in the evaluation process. In 2016, a total of 57 projects were visited, including by the secretariat of the Fund, OHCHR field presences and members of the Board. III. Financial situation of the Fund 8. The Board, in close coordination with the secretariat of the Fund and the Donors and External Relations Section of OHCHR, seeks to secure yearly a more satisfactory level of contributions from donors, which is needed to respond to the current realities of victims of torture and their family members worldwide. An average income of $12 million would be necessary to respond adequately to the requests for assistance received by the Fund from rehabilitation centres and redress programmes worldwide. Over the last three years, the Fund has managed to secure an average yearly income of $9 million. 9. The table below shows the contributions and pledges received in 2016 as of the time of writing. Regrettably, the prospects for attaining the level of income achieved in recent years are not as positive as they were at the time of writing. As at the forty-fourth session of the Board, at which grants were recommended for 2017, the Fund had a net total of $8,306,949 available for activities, including grants, to be implemented in the course of 2017. 3