A/HRC/28/25 Amount Donor Total contributions (United States dollars) Date of receipt 8 808 111 Pledges Algeria 5 000 11 November 2013 Finland 348 692 21 November 2014 Mexico 5 000 28 August 2014 Total pledges 358 692 IV. Fortieth session of the Board of Trustees 10. The fortieth session of the Board was held in Geneva from 29 September to 3 October 2014. The Board examined applications for funding and made recommendations on grants to be awarded to beneficiary organizations for the period from 1 January to 31 December 2015. 11. The amount available for distribution to projects was calculated after deducting programme support costs, the operating cash reserve and the expenditure for non-grant activities from the total amount of contributions received after the thirty-eighth session of the Board, held in October 2013. 12. The Board of Trustees considered a total of 257 admissible project proposals aimed at providing direct assistance to victims of torture and their family members, amounting to a total request of $14,796,502. 13. The Board reviewed positively a total of 190 projects in more than 81 countries for a total amount of $6,335,400. Notably, it recommended for a grant 167 ongoing projects aimed at providing direct assistance to victims, for a total of $5,670,000; 20 new projects aimed at providing direct assistance to victims, for a total of $590,000; and three grants for new training and seminars projects, for a total of $75,400. 14. The Board also recommended setting aside an additional $1 million to support capacity-building projects of new rehabilitation centres, in particular in less developed regions, and for emergency grants to be considered in 2015 through its intersessional procedure, thereby adhering more strictly to General Assembly resolution 36/151. 15. In doing so, the Board reached all its operational targets to be achieved from 2015 to 2017, as described in the report of the Secretary-General submitted to the General Assembly (A/69/296). All project proposals were reviewed on a competitive basis, taking into account the merit and documented needs, as well as years of continuous support by the Fund to the same project. This resulted in a more manageable project portfolio, a significant increase in the average grant size and a more balanced distribution of projects among the five regions of the world. 16. The Board also recommended that special attention should continue to be paid to the needs in Ukraine and the Middle-East, in particular in the Syrian Arab Republic and Iraq. 5