FUNDING However, payment of extrabudgetary contributions continued to be received in the latter half of the year, further aggravating the cash flow situation of the Office. In absolute terms, during 2019, UN Human Rights raised the eighth highest amount of unearmarked funds ever received (US$57.1 million). Nevertheless, this represented the second lowest percentage of unearmarked funds (32 per cent) compared to the total extrabudgetary income since 2006. Some of this can be attributed to the receipt of more locally sourced funding for field activities and to contributions from non-traditional budget lines that can only be accessed as earmarked funds. Other contributions that were previously unearmarked were transformed into more circumscribed funding. This continued increase in earmarking makes it more difficult for UN Human Rights to efficiently implement the OMP, limiting its capacity to allocate resources where and when they are most needed. Earmarking means reduced flexibility with correspondingly higher transactional costs, as well as constraints on the effective response to emerging needs. In terms of extrabudgetary support, a total of US$179 million was raised in voluntary contributions during the reporting period. This represents a decrease of 4.3 per cent compared to the 2018 total of US$187.1 million, the highest annual amount that UN Human Rights has received to date. The total amount of extrabudgetary contributions falls far short of the US$321.5 million in extrabudgetary requirements that was sought in the 2019 Annual Appeal. These extrabudgetary requirements are the funds that UN Human Rights requires, in addition to its regular budget allocation, if it is to respond to all of the requests for assistance that it receives in a given year. EARMARKED VERSUS UNEARMARKED FUNDING 2019 $57.1M (32%) Unearmarked $121.9M (68%) Earmarked 2019 - TREND IN PLEDGES AND PAYMENTS Amount pledged (in million US$) 75.6 Amount paid (in million US$) 28.7 22.5 27.2 01 January - 31 March 88 UN HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 2019 32.2 1 April - 30 June 51.5 55.2 1 July - 30 September 29.4 143.3 1 October- 31 December 179.0