UN Says It's Nearly Out of Cash

The secretary-general of the United Nations has its member states that the organization could soon run out of money unless they change course on funding. In a letter to the UN's 93 members, Secretary-General António Guterres said the world body is facing a worsening cash crisis that could leave it without operating funds by July, the BBC reports. He said decisions by some governments not to pay their assessed dues—mandatory contributions under the UN Charter—now threaten the organization's ability to carry out its approved budgets and programs. "The current trajectory is untenable," Guterres wrote, per Le Monde.

Guterres did not name countries in the letter, but the US, the UN's largest contributor, has withheld its full payments to both the regular and peacekeeping budgets and has pulled out of dozens of UN agencies, per the BBC. The secretary-general called the current situation "categorically different" from past budget crunches, citing a record level of unpaid dues at the end of 2025 that amounted to 77% of what was owed. He also pointed to a budgeting rule that requires the UN to refund unspent money on specific programs to member states—even when the corresponding contributions were never received—calling it a "double blow." This month alone, he said, the UN was obliged to return $227 million it did not actually have in hand.

A partial reform of the financial system approved by the General Assembly in late 2025 has not closed the gap. Visible austerity measures are already in place at UN headquarters in Geneva, where escalators are often shut down and heating is reduced. Across the system, agencies are cutting operations: The human rights office says it can no longer document some serious abuses for lack of investigators; UN Women has closed mother-and-baby clinics in Afghanistan; and the World Food Program has reduced rations for refugees fleeing the war in Sudan.