A/HRC/23/61 16. To date, all States elected to the Human Rights Council have a permanent mission in Geneva. Consequently, there have been no requests for financial assistance to participate in a session as a rapporteur. 17. A number of Member States have reported that the current reimbursement procedure is cumbersome, as it requires their national administrations and Permanent Missions to engage in a number of complicated administrative and auditing procedures in order to receive and justify the refunds. Moreover, this procedure is very slow, as reimbursements are only effected after the United Nations administration has received and processed the travel claims accompanied by original ticket receipts and detailed bank account information. Further restrictions have recently been imposed as a result of a United Nations advance purchase policy, which came into force on 1 June 2011 under the mandate of the Secretary-General to improve efficiency and reduce costs. The policy requires that all official travel requests, including for prepaid travel arranged directly by Member States, be received and ticketed at least 14 calendar days prior to departure. 18. In the light of the above, the secretariat has proposed a revision of the terms of reference of the Fund to allow for the advance purchase of tickets directly by OHCHR. The secretariat expects that the number of countries requesting travel assistance would increase significantly if an advance purchase mechanism were established. B. Training 19. Briefings organized by the secretariat bring together both developing and developed countries. Only the participation of the former is covered by the Fund in the form of reimbursement of travel expenses and DSA. Briefings are usually initiated by the secretariat, but may also be organized at the request of States, other United Nations entities or intergovernmental organizations. They draw extensively on the experience of other States that have already been reviewed, as well as on the expertise of OHCHR regional offices, the secretariat and other intergovernmental or regional organizations. These forums for the exchange of information are aimed at helping States to organize a broad and participatory process of national consultation, to prepare a comprehensive and balanced national report and to become acquainted with the rules of procedure of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review and the plenary session of the Human Rights Council. 20. In early 2012, OHCHR management initiated an internal review aimed at assessing the feasibility of merging the Voluntary Fund for Participation in the Universal Periodic Review with the Voluntary Fund for Financial and Technical Assistance in the Implementation of the Universal Periodic Review, both of which were established in accordance with Human Rights Council resolution 6/17. The rationale for the proposed merger was the common thematic coverage, despite the operational and functional difference of the two funds. The review was also conducted bearing in mind the priorities described in resolution 16/21, which clearly differentiated between the two trust funds. The briefing activities carried out up to that point under the Voluntary Fund for Participation in the Universal Periodic Review were suspended in 2012 to allow the internal review to proceed. 21. At the initiative of Mauritius, which has been advocating increased assistance and support for least developed countries and small island developing States within the framework of the Human Rights Council, a preparatory briefing similar to the ones described in section II B above has been scheduled for July 2013, thus reinitiating the briefing activities briefly put on hold in 2012. The format of the Mauritius briefing has been slightly adjusted to focus on the specific needs of least developed countries and small island developing States in their engagement with the universal periodic review mechanism and, 7