The United Nation’s (UN’s) Secretary General António Guterres has warned that the organisation is in financial crisis. All remaining equal, cash is forecasted to run out by July. At the end of 2025, $1.6 billion of expected contributions from member states were unpaid; this means only 77% of the total owed has been paid. This is a deficit of more than x2 that which was left unpaid in 2024. Unless collections improve, it is very unlikely that the UN budget for 2026 of $3.45 billion, approved unanimously by all 193 members, will be executed.

This article will reason how this has happened and will explore some of the dire consequences on both member states and on the UN’s critical aid work across the globe. 

More than 150 nation states have paid up so why is the UN missing $1.6 billion?

Although Guterres, in his letter to all 193 members urging them to meet their contributions, did not explicitly name names, it takes no genius to conclude who should take most of the blame. The US historically being the UN’s number one contributor and Trump’s year of attacks on the organisation has likely led to a lot of the $1.6 billion being left unpaid at the fault of the US. Trump has criticised the UN in a number of ways, to him: it has failed to meet its “great potential”, is a “waste of US taxpayer dollars” and it “advance globalist agendas over US priorities.” His actions align with his words: he has pulled out of a long list of international organisations, including 31 UN agencies, notably the WHO and paid only 30% of the US’ expected contribution to UN peacekeeping operations. However, the US is not the only perpetrator. The UK has also cut its budget for international commitments – from 0.5% of gross national income (GNI) to just 0.3%. This is in breach of the 2015 International Development Act which outlines the duty of the Secretary of State to make sure that the target for development assistant is 0.7% of GNI. With key actors not meeting their commitments, the UN is in trouble.

Key UN member states refusing to pay up is a massive blow to the agency for several reasons. Firstly, the UN, under its financial rules, is required to reimburse member states for unspent funds. As Guterres has said: the UN is trapped in a “Kafkaesque cycle”; it is expected to pay back cash that it simply does not have as member states are not fulfilling their obligations. Secondly, vital parts of the UN’s work, under current financial constraints will not be able to take place. Afghanistan, which has of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the world, has seen UN Women having to close its mother and baby clinics. The human rights office cannot afford enough investigators so is unable to document serious abuses, which in the past have been crucial to pursuing the persecution of war criminals. Refugees fleeing from the war in Sudan have had their food rations reduced as a result of the World Food Program having had to scale back its operations.

The UN headquarters in Geneva is practising some acute austerity measures: heating has been turned down, and escalators are regularly being turned off but this is clearly not nearly enough. If member states do not pull their weight, the United Nation’s credibility, which is already being attacked by the likes of Trump, will be in serious doubt and the organisation’s vital work will unfortunately, only be further jeopardised with further budgetary cuts. 

Cover Image: The White House via Wikimedia Commons

In-Text Image: Ank Kumar via Wikimedia Commons