The United Nations is facing an imminent financial collapse as member states fail to pay their mandatory contributions, Secretary-General António Guterres has warned, cautioning that the organisation could run out of money as early as July.
In a letter to all 193 UN member states, Guterres said the financial crisis was “deepening and threatening programme delivery”, urging countries either to pay their assessed contributions in full and on time or to fundamentally overhaul the UN’s financial rules to prevent collapse.
The warning comes amid a sharp funding shortfall driven largely by the refusal of the United States, the UN’s largest contributor, to pay into the organisation’s regular and peacekeeping budgets. Several other member states are also in arrears or have withheld payments altogether.
Although the UN General Assembly approved limited reforms to the organisation’s financial system in late 2025, Guterres said they were insufficient to avert a growing cash crisis. He highlighted a long-standing rule that requires the UN to refund unspent programme funds, even when the money was never received — a situation he described as a “double blow”.
“We cannot execute budgets with uncollected funds, nor return funds we never received,” Guterres wrote.
According to the Secretary-General, only 77% of assessed contributions were paid in 2025, leaving a record level of unpaid dues. As part of the 2026 budget process alone, the UN was forced to return $227 million it had not collected.
At the UN’s Geneva headquarters, the crisis has become visible: escalators are frequently switched off, heating reduced, and cost-saving measures imposed across offices.
The United States withheld its full contribution to the UN’s regular budget in 2025 and provided only 30% of its expected peacekeeping funding. In January, President Donald Trump withdrew the US from dozens of international bodies, including 31 UN agencies, describing them as a misuse of American taxpayer money and accusing them of advancing “globalist agendas”.
Although Washington pledged $2 billion in humanitarian funding in late 2025, the figure is far below the $17 billion it provided in 2022. Other major donors, including the UK and Germany, have also announced cuts to foreign aid, further squeezing UN operations.
The financial strain is already having severe consequences. The UN human rights office says it can no longer deploy investigators to document serious abuses, undermining efforts to prosecute war crimes. In Afghanistan, the UN Population Fund has closed maternal health clinics, while the World Food Programme has reduced food rations for refugees fleeing Sudan’s conflict.
Guterres warned that the current crisis was “categorically different” from past shortfalls and posed a direct threat to the integrity of the UN system itself.
“Either all member states honour their obligations,” he wrote, “or member states must fundamentally overhaul our financial rules to prevent an imminent financial collapse.”
