FUNDING FUNDING This challenging financial context is exacerbated by the timing of regular budget allocations. During 2018, the Human Rights Council established two new mandates with programme budget implications, and the practice is that these are presented to the General Assembly at the end of the year in the summary of all resolutions adopted by the Council during the year. However, while most of the resources required for new mandates were approved at the end of 2018, as they are each year, their late-in-the-year presentation to the General Assembly means that UN Human Rights was forced again to draw from its voluntary resources to fund new activities having a more immediate timeline. In terms of extrabudgetary support, a total of US$187.1 million was raised in voluntary contributions during the reporting period. This represents the highest amount that UN Human Rights has received in absolute terms and is US$44.3 million (31 per cent) more than was received in 2017. This remarkable growth was due primarily to increased contributions from existing Member State donors. Nonetheless, the donated amount falls far short of the US$278.3 million in extrabudgetary requirements that was sought in the 2018 Annual Appeal. The extrabudgetary requirements are the funds that UN Human Rights requires, in addition to its regular budget allocation, if it is to respond to all requests of assistance it receives in a given year. Moreover, the increasingly challenging global human rights context warrants a greater investment in the UN Human Rights mandates. EARMARKED VERSUS UNEARMARKED FUNDING 2018 $55.7M (30%) Unearmarked $131.4M (70%) Earmarked The percentage of unearmarked funds (30 per cent) was the lowest since 2005, representing, in absolute terms, the ninth highest amount of unearmarked funds ever received (US$55.7 million). Some of this can be attributed to the receipt of more funding locally for field activities and to contributions from non-traditional budget lines that can only be accessed as earmarked funds. However, other contributions previously unearmarked have been transformed into more circumscribed funding. This steep increase in earmarking makes it more difficult for UN Human Rights to efficiently implement the OMP, limiting its capacity to allocate resources where they are most needed. Earmarking means constant budgetary adjustments, with correspondingly higher transactional costs. 2018 - TREND IN PLEDGES & PAYMENTS Amount pledged (in million US$) 63.4 Amount paid (in million US$) 32.5 01 January - 31 March 74 UN HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 2018 32.4 18.7 46.8 1 April - 30 June 57.4 176.9 78.9 1 July - 30 September 187.1 33.9 1 October- 31 December The diversification of the donor base continued to be a challenge. In 2018, UN Human Rights received funding from a total of 89 donors. As in previous years, despite efforts to broaden the donor base, including by increasing the number of contributing Member States and bringing in non-traditional donors, the overwhelming majority of voluntary contributions came from 63 Member States, who provided a total of US$153.8 million, representing 82.2 per cent of all contributions received. Of the 63 Member States that contributed in 2018, only one was a first time contributor, while 54 had contributed in 2017. In addition, 39 out of 63 contributing Member States increased their support compared to 2017 while 45 provided unearmarked funding. Multilateral organizations, including the European Commission and UN partners, contributed an additional US$31.2 million, or 16.7 per cent, of all contributions. Only a small group of 11 Member States pledged through multi-year agreements, which compounds the lack of funding predictability and sustainability. As of the beginning of January 2019, only US$60 million from 14 donors had been registered for 2019. On the expenditure side, approximately 59.3 per cent of all voluntary funding was used to support work in the field, which receives minimal support from the regular budget. The remainder of the voluntary funding was distributed between other areas of UN Human Rights’ work and often supplemented the limited resources available from the regular budget. In 2018, 9 per cent of extrabudgetary expenditures were devoted to thematic research, human rights mainstreaming, the development of policy and the provision of guidance and tools; 1.5 per cent were spent on supporting the human rights treaty bodies, including policymaking organs; and 6.4 per cent were spent on support for the Human Rights Council and its special procedures. The remainder was devoted to programme support (5.5 per cent), executive direction and management, resource mobilization and outreach activities (11.2 per cent) and the trust funds and miscellaneous activities (7 per cent). thematic research, human rights mainstreaming, the development of policy and the provision of guidance and tools; 9.9 per cent were spent supporting the human rights treaty bodies, including policymaking organs; and 11.7 per cent were spent in support of the Human Rights Council and its special procedures. The remainder was devoted to programme support (5.4 per cent), executive direction and management, resource mobilization and outreach activities (9.3 per cent) and the trust funds and miscellaneous activities (4.0 per cent). Although the extrabudgetary income of UN Human Rights was below its extrabudgetary requirements and in spite of increased earmarking of voluntary contributions, UN Human Rights used its available resources efficiently, which enabled it to achieve a far greater impact than would otherwise have been possible. UN Human Rights managed not only to spend the income received, it replenished the necessary reserves to begin 2019 on sound financial footing. In 2018, 49.5 per cent of total expenditures, including both regular budget and voluntary contributions, were devoted to field work, particularly for capacity-strengthening projects and for human rights monitoring, which were predominantly financed through voluntary contributions. Approximately 10.2 per cent of total expenditures were spent on UN HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 2018 75