UN Faces Imminent Financial Collapse, Guterres Warns Member States
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has warned that the United Nations is on the brink of an “imminent financial collapse” due to mounting unpaid dues and outdated financial rules.
Guterres sounded the alarm in a letter to UN member states, urging them to urgently clear outstanding contributions and agree on reforms to the organisation’s financial framework.
“The crisis is deepening, threatening programme delivery and risking financial collapse. And the situation will deteriorate further in the near future,” Guterres wrote.
He cautioned that member states must either overhaul the UN’s financial rules or accept “the very real prospect of the financial collapse of our Organisation.”
The UN chief identified two major challenges: persistent non-payment of assessed contributions and a long-standing rule that requires the organisation to refund hundreds of millions of dollars in unspent funds to member states annually.
“In other words, we are trapped in a Kafkaesque cycle expected to give back cash that does not exist,” he said, referencing the oppressive bureaucracy described in the works of author Franz Kafka.
Guterres also noted that some member states had formally announced decisions not to honour assessed contributions that fund a significant portion of the UN’s regular 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,” he stressed.
Under UN regulations, member states’ annual dues are assessed based on factors such as gross domestic product and debt levels. The United States contributes 22 per cent of the UN’s regular budget and about 26 per cent of its peacekeeping budget.
However, the U.S. has reduced voluntary funding to UN agencies and declined to make mandatory payments to the organisation’s regular and peacekeeping budgets.
As of the end of 2025, outstanding dues had risen to a record 1.57 billion dollars, according to Guterres.
Founded in 1945, the UN has 193 member states and is mandated to promote international peace and security, human rights, development and humanitarian cooperation.
Concerns have also been raised about the potential impact of a recently announced Board of Peace by U.S. President Donald Trump, which some observers fear could undermine the UN’s role. Trump has said the UN has “great potential” but is failing to live up to it.
In response to the financial strain, Guterres in 2025 launched a reform initiative known as UN80, aimed at cutting costs and improving efficiency. As part of the effort, member states agreed to reduce the 2026 budget by about seven per cent to 3.45 billion dollars.
Despite these measures, Guterres warned that the UN could run out of cash by July.
As of Friday, only 36 of the organisation’s 193 member states had fully paid their regular 2026 contributions, according to data published on the UN’s website.
