24 United Nations Principles and Guidelines on Access to Legal Aid in Criminal Justice Systems should, where appropriate, make adequate and specific budget provisions for legal aid services that are commensurate with their needs, including by providing dedicated and sustainable funding mechanisms for the national legal aid system. 61. To this end, States could take measures: (a) To establish a legal aid fund to finance legal aid schemes, including public defender schemes, to support legal aid provision by legal or bar associations; to support university law clinics; and to sponsor non‑ governmental organizations and other organizations, including paralegal organizations, in providing legal aid services throughout the country, especially in rural and economically and socially disadvantaged areas; (b) To identify fiscal mechanisms for channelling funds to legal aid, such as: (i)  Allocating a percentage of the State’s criminal justice budget to legal aid services that are commensurate with the needs of effective legal aid provision; (ii)  Using funds recovered from criminal activities through seizures or fines to cover legal aid for victims; (c) To identify and put in place incentives for lawyers to work in rural areas and economically and socially disadvantaged areas (e.g., tax exemptions or reductions, student loan payment reductions); (d) To ensure fair and proportional distribution of funds between prosecution and legal aid agencies. 62. The budget for legal aid should cover the full range of services to be provided to persons detained, arrested or imprisoned, suspected or accused of, or charged with a criminal offence, and to victims. Adequate special funding should be dedicated to defence expenses such as expenses for copying relevant files and documents and collection of evidence, expenses related to expert witnesses, forensic experts and social workers, and travel expenses. Payments should be timely. Guideline 13. Human resources 63. States should, where appropriate, make adequate and specific provisions for staffing the nationwide legal aid system that are commensurate with their needs.