A/HRC/19/26 Donors Amount (United States dollars) Date of receipt Pledges Afghanistan 500 8 November 2010 Belgium 284 900 9 June 2011 Spain 341 997 2 November 2011 Total pledges 627 398 7. In accordance with United Nations financial regulations, programme support costs will be charged to the Trust Fund at the rate of 13 per cent of total annual expenditure. In addition, the United Nations requires that an operating cash reserve of 15 per cent of annual estimated expenditure be maintained to cover exchange rate fluctuation, any shortfalls and to meet final expenditure, including any liquidating liabilities. The operating cash reserve will be left unallotted and carried forward from year to year, until required. Expenditure for non-grant activities include, inter alia, travel expenditure for Board members, expenditure for monitoring and evaluation of projects by United Nations staff and technical assistance for the further development of the grant management system. 8. The amount available for distribution to projects will be calculated after deducting programme support costs, operating cash reserve and expenditure for non-grant activities from the total amount of funds made available in the form of contributions received between the thirty-third session of the Board of Trustees, held in October 2010, and the thirty-fifth session of the Board, to be held in January 2012, and the operating cash reserve of the previous cycle. IV. Estimated needs for 2013 9. From 2006 to 2010, the Board progressively increased the amount awarded in grants to projects worldwide. This had been possible because the income used during this period included both the yearly voluntary contributions and unallocated amounts carried over from previous years. Those amounts resulted from more efficient management of the Fund, including the change in cycle, closer monitoring of grantees and stricter reporting requirements. The Board had decided to use the carry-overs to increase the level of funding to projects, particularly in priority regions. 10. In 2011, however, the Board faced a shortfall of US$3 million to continue to meet requests from grantees at the same level as in 2010, and therefore decided on strategic cuts for the 2011 grants cycle. As no significant additional contribution was received in 2011 for the 2012 grants cycle, the Board is still facing an important shortfall and will have to maintain or increase these strategic cuts for the 2012 grants cycle and further limit its support to new projects. If no additional contribution is received in 2012 for the 2013 grants cycle, these strategic cuts might have to be upheld or increased. 11. On the basis of the requests received for 2012, it is expected that approximately $22 million will be requested by organizations for 2013. V. Making a contribution 12. Contributions to the Fund should always be marked “payee: United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture, account CH”. Payments may be made either by bank transfer (a) in United States dollars to the United Nations Geneva General Fund, 4