A/HRC/25/25 II. Management of grants A. Admissibility criteria 5. Project admissibility criteria are outlined in the guidelines for the Fund, which were revised at the thirty-sixth session of the Board of Trustees, in 2012. The guidelines require a project to be presented by an established channel of assistance, including non-governmental organizations, associations of victims and of family members of victims, private and public hospitals, legal clinics, public-interest law firms and individual lawyers. The beneficiaries must be direct victims of torture or direct family members. Priority is given to projects providing direct assistance to torture victims, which may consist of medical or psychological assistance, help with social or financial reintegration through vocational training for victims, and various forms of legal assistance for victims or members of their families, including assistance in seeking redress or applying for asylum. Depending on the resources available, the Fund may finance projects to organize training programmes, seminars or conferences to allow health-care professionals or other service providers to exchange best practices. Grant requests for projects involving investigation, research, studies, publications or other similar activities are not admissible. 6. The Fund can provide emergency assistance. This type of request is examined according to specific procedures outlined in the guidelines for the Fund. Detailed information on the various types of assistance provided through the projects financed by the Fund, as well as their impact on beneficiaries, can be found in the report of the SecretaryGeneral to the General Assembly at its fifty-eighth session (A/58/284, paras. 27–34). B. Monitoring and evaluation of grants 7. Pre-screening visits to projects are undertaken systematically before a grant is awarded. Regular monitoring visits to ongoing projects are also scheduled to assess the implementation of the projects funded. In the reporting period, an internal guide on how to conduct visits to projects that have been funded or are to be funded was developed by the secretariat, in order to enhance verification methodology and coherence. In 2013, 34 such visits were undertaken by the secretariat of the Fund, 11 by members of the Board of Trustees, 35 by OHCHR field presences, and 3 by OHCHR desk officers. 8. In the reporting period, the joint secretariat has continued to align the working methods of both Funds with a view to heightening cost-effectiveness and sharing best practices. These efforts were noted with satisfaction by the respective Boards of Trustees and have yielded closer working relationships with staff deployed in OHCHR field presences. III. Financial situation of the Fund 9. From 2008 to 2011, the annual voluntary contributions to the Fund decreased dramatically by 30 per cent ($3.6 million), amounting to $7.9 million in 2011. This negative trend appears to have come to a halt in 2013, although the Fund is still struggling to rise back to a more satisfactory level that would enable it to meet all demands for assistance coming from all regions of the world. 10. As noted in A/68/282, the recommended new funding formula currently being developed by the Board and the secretariat will have an optimal impact if the Fund succeeds in securing $12 million on a yearly basis. 3