UN Faces Risk of Imminent Financial Collapse, Secretary-General Warns

The United Nations is facing the threat of an “imminent financial collapse” as member states fail to pay their mandatory contributions, Secretary-General António Guterres has warned.

In a letter to all 193 member states, Guterres said the UN’s financial crisis is deepening and could leave the organisation without sufficient funds by July, severely disrupting programme delivery. He urged countries to either settle their assessed fees in full and on time or agree to a fundamental overhaul of the UN’s financial rules to avert collapse.

The warning follows decisions by several countries to withhold payments, including the United States the UN’s largest contributor which has refused to fund the organisation’s regular and peacekeeping budgets and withdrawn from multiple UN agencies it has described as a waste of taxpayer money. Other member states are also in arrears or have declined to pay altogether.

Although the UN General Assembly approved limited reforms to the organisation’s financial system in late 2025, the UN continues to face a severe cash shortage. The situation has been worsened by a rule requiring the UN to refund unspent funds, even when those funds were never received. Guterres described this as a “double blow” that forces the organisation to return money it does not have.

According to the secretary-general, only 77% of assessed contributions were paid in 2025, leaving a record level of unpaid dues. “We cannot execute budgets with uncollected funds, nor return funds we never received,” he said, noting that the UN was compelled this month to return $227m as part of its 2026 assessment.

At UN offices in Geneva, cost-cutting measures are already visible, with escalators switched off and heating reduced in an effort to conserve cash.

The funding crisis is having tangible consequences across the UN system. The human rights office has warned that serious abuses may go uninvestigated due to a lack of resources. In Afghanistan, UN Women has shut down mother and baby clinics, while the World Food Programme has reduced food rations for refugees fleeing the conflict in Sudan.

Guterres said the UN has weathered financial crises before, but stressed that the current situation is “categorically different” and poses a direct threat to the integrity and functioning of the entire organisation.