The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres plans to cut more than $700 million in spending and launch a major reform of the organization as its largest donor, the United States, reduces support.
This is reported by Bloomberg.
The plan calls for cutting costs and staff by 20%, which would reduce the UN budget, which currently stands at $3.7 billion, to its lowest level since 2018. About 3 000 jobs will be cut.
The reform agenda is officially timed to coincide with the UN’s 80th anniversary, not the coming to power of a new US administration. But the scale of the cuts suggests that it could threaten to cut off US funding, which traditionally provides 22% of the organisation’s budget. President Donald Trump has already suspended funding and withdrawn the US from several UN bodies, and a broader policy review could lead to further cuts.
“We will not participate in organizations that pursue policies that harm the United States,” State Department deputy spokesman Tommy Pigott said on July 31.
The budget cuts at the UN also coincide with the Trump administration cutting tens of billions of dollars in foreign aid as part of a policy of protecting American interests. The need for global aid is growing amid conflicts from the Middle East to Ukraine and Africa.
After years of financial difficulties, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has outlined a major structural overhaul. In January 2025, he warned that the UN was in a “full-blown liquidity crisis”. Overall, spending across the UN system is set to fall to its lowest level in a decade, $20 billion below its 2023 peak.
Guterres is expected to present details of the reform in the September budget. It involves restructuring many programs. The secretary-general oversees the UNʼs regular budget, which is only a fraction of the systemʼs total spending. Agencies such as UNICEF and UNESCO are also preparing significant cuts due to their own funding shortfalls.
- The Trump administration has already stopped funding the UN Middle East agency for Palestinian refugees, withdrawn from the UN Human Rights Council and left UNESCO.
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