The United Nations is facing a $500 million budget cut for 2026, which could eliminate about 20% of its staff as the organisation grapples with a massive reduction in U.S. government funding.
The proposed budget will shrink from $3.7 billion in 2025 to approximately $3.2 billion next year, representing a 15.1% cut in resources and 18.8% in posts in the UN's regular budget. The reduction could lead to a minimum of 3,000 job cuts from the organisation's 35,000-strong workforce. These figures do not include potential cuts to the UN's peacekeeping, humanitarian, and health agencies.
UN Secretary António Guterres has framed the budgets as an opportunity to streamline the organisation. Last year, he unveiled the ambitious' pact for the future' agenda, addressing artificial intelligence, peace operations, climate change, and groundbreaking UN Security Council reforms.
Another initiative, known as UN80, calls for agencies to review their mandates and relationships with other UN bodies to consolidate functions into the UN's three founding pillars: peace and security, human rights, and development.
The funding crisis follows growing antagonism from the Trump administration, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio describing the postwar global order as 'obsolete' and 'a weapon being used against us'. The U.S. has also withdrawn from several key UN bodies, including UNESCO, the World Health Organisation, and the Human Rights Council.
Former U.S. State Department official Allison Lombardo said the cuts were "more extensive and more permanent than many people thought." She estimated that U.S. funding could fall from $1.5 billion to $300 million, mainly impacting peacekeeping and voluntary contributions.
The effects are already being felt across the organisation. The World Food Programme, which relied on Washington for half its $9 billion budget in 2024, and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, which received 40% of its funding from the U.S., face major budget reductions. The U.S. has also ended support for and sought to close the UN's Palestinian welfare agency.
At a press briefing, Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said the budget cuts were impacting the organisation's global relief efforts. "We've only been funded 19% of what we need, which is a 40% drop from last year," he said.