UNITED NATIONS: Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is proposing a 15% cut to the UN’s regular budget for 2026 as the organisation grapples with severe liquidity problems exacerbated by US policies.
A senior United Nations official confirmed the revised budget would be $3.238 billion, resulting in the elimination of 2,681 positions across the organisation.
Guterres had initially proposed maintaining the 2026 budget at the 2025 level of approximately $3.7 billion but revised it downward as part of his UN80 Initiative to enhance organisational agility and efficiency.
In letters to member states and UN personnel made public Tuesday, the UN chief announced reductions exceeding 15% in the regular budget level, amounting to approximately $500 million, alongside a 19% reduction in the workforce covered by that budget.
The impact of these cuts will be distributed across the UN’s three core pillars of peace and security, human rights, and sustainable development, though programs supporting least-developed nations will be protected.
“For some colleagues, these changes may mean relocation for themselves and their families,“ Guterres wrote in his communication to staff.
The restructuring includes relocating at least 200 personnel from Geneva and New York to more cost-effective locations such as Nairobi, according to the senior UN official.
The proposed budget will undergo a vote in the General Assembly before the conclusion of the current year.
The United Nations has confronted persistent liquidity challenges for years due to member states failing to pay their mandatory contributions in full or on time.
The United States traditionally covers 22% of the UN’s regular budget, which funds core organisational activities separate from peacekeeping operations.
Washington owed $1.5 billion in arrears as of January’s end and has made no payments since Donald Trump’s return to the White House, according to UN records.
Future American contributions to the organisation remain uncertain following the US withdrawal from several UN agencies and Congress’s July vote to rescind previously approved funding. – AFP