Source: United Nations (video statements)
“Overall for the regular budget, I am proposing to bring the resource requirements for 2026 down to 3.238 billion US dollars,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres announced, unveiling a sweeping revision to next year’s spending plan amid deepening financial strains across the organization.
Addressing Member States in New York City today (01 Dec), Guterres said the updated proposal marks a significant shift from the version drafted earlier this year. “A few weeks ago, I introduced the proposed programme budget for 2026 which had been for the most part prepared before the launch of the UN80 Initiative,” he said, noting that the original document “did not yet reflect the first outcomes of the Secretariat’s comprehensive review of its resource requirements for 2026.”
The revised estimates now incorporate early results from the UN80 reform effort, which he said underscores “both the urgency and the ambition” driving the Secretariat’s modernization. The report contains two linked components: “initial measures to improve the management and operations of the Secretariat” and “targeted efficiencies and cost reductions to the proposed programme budget for 2026 and the support account budget for 2025/26.”
Under the proposal, the UN’s regular budget would fall by $577 million, or 15.1 percent, compared with 2025. The staffing table would shrink to 11,594 posts, including Special Political Missions, a reduction of 2,681 positions, or 18.8 percent.
But Guterres emphasized that budget tightening alone cannot resolve the UN’s widening liquidity crisis. “We ended 2024 with $760 million in arrears, of which $709 million is still outstanding… We have also not received $877 million of 2025 dues,” he said. “Thus, arrears now stand at $1,586 million.”
He again urged Member States to meet their assessed contributions “in full and on time,” warning that persistent shortfalls are forcing the organization to manage cash “well below budget levels.”
Guterres reiterated his proposal to temporarily suspend the return of credits, saying, “It is difficult for us to give back money that we have not – because we didn’t receive it,” and called for a temporary account to safeguard Member States’ rights until liquidity improves.