2026-01-31 14:00
publication
2026-01-31 14:00
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that UN finances are on the verge of collapse and called on member states to immediately pay outstanding contributions. The arrears amount to $1.57 billion. The USA, under the presidency of Donald Trump, did not pay the regular contribution and limited UN funding.
“The crisis is deepening, threatening the implementation of programs and posing a risk of financial collapse. The situation will further deteriorate in the near future,” Guterres warned in a letter to member states released to the media on Friday.
The Secretary-General added that “decisions not to recognize established contributions, which finance a significant part of the regular budget, have already been officially announced.” However, he did not name specific countries that decided to take this step.
The US has long been the UN's largest donor. However, the United States did not pay the mandatory contribution for 2025 to the general UN budget and declared to pay only 30%. planned contribution to UN peacekeeping operations. Washington also withdrew from membership in 31 UN agencies, including: from the World Health Organization (WHO).
The UN warned that this decision would affect, among others, in programs on development, climate, education and gender equality.
Trump announced that withdrawing from UN agencies would end “US taxpayer funding for entities that put a globalist agenda ahead of US priorities.”
The American president has repeatedly criticized the UN, accusing the organization of, among other things, inefficiency, excessive bureaucracy and bias.
The UN has “enormous potential,” but it is not fully utilized, Trump said last week in Davos during the ceremony establishing the Peace Council he promotes. Critics of this initiative accuse the American leader of wanting to create a body that will replace the UN.
In a letter to UN members, Guterres emphasized the need to reform the organization's finances. Current regulations oblige it to return funds allocated to programs that were not implemented due to lack of financing. This is a Kafkaesque situation, we are expected to return money that does not exist, stressed the Secretary General.
Not only the US but also other countries are in arrears with their contributions, the BBC noted, adding that restrictions on foreign aid were also announced by, among others, Great Britain or Germany.
Shortfalls in the UN budget are already translating into a reduction in humanitarian aid around the world. The UN Women's Program has had to close mother-and-baby clinics in Afghanistan, which has one of the world's highest maternal mortality rates; The World Food Program has had to reduce aid rations for refugees in Sudan, a country embroiled in civil war and one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. (PAP)
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