The UN head warns member states that the leading international body is at risk of “imminent financial collapse,” pointing to unpaid fees and an oppressive budget rule, according to multiple media reports.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres made the dire pronouncement in a letter to ambassadors, sent last Wednesday. “The crisis is deepening, threatening programme delivery and risking financial collapse. And the situation will deteriorate further in the near future,” he said, noting that “decisions not to honour assessed contributions that finance a significant share of the approved regular budget have now been formally announced.”
While Guterres did not name a specific country or countries, the US gutted voluntary funding to UN agencies and refusal to make mandatory payments to its regular and peacekeeping budgets undoubtedly play a significant role in the budget crisis.
Under UN rules, contributions depend on the size of a member states’ economy, ensuring that all 193 members pay their fair share. As the world’s largest economy, the US is also the single largest contributor, accounting for 22 percent of the organisation’s core budget.
“Either all Member States honour their obligations to pay in full and on time – or Member States must fundamentally overhaul our financial rules to prevent an imminent financial collapse,” Guterres said.
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By the end of 2025, outstanding dues sat at a record US$1.57 billion – more than twice the figure in 2024, even though over 150 member states paid in full. UN officials say the US currently owes US$2.19 billion to the regular UN budget, as well as US$1.88 billion for current peace-keeping missions and US$528 million for past missions.
“The current trajectory is untenable. It leaves the organisation exposed to structural financial risk,” Guterres wrote.
The secretary-general has spoken out before about the organisation’s worsening liquidity crisis. He launched a reform task force last March, known as the UN80 Initiative, aimed at cutting costs and boosting efficiency. That led to a roughly 7-percent cut to the 2026 budget, to US$3.45 billion, but the organisation is still at risk of running out of cash by July.
Another part of the problem is a rule requiring the UN to reimburse member states for unspent funds, trapping the organisation in a “Kafkaesque cycle, expected to give back cash that does not exist,” he wrote.
