Overview:
The United Nations is warning it could face financial collapse within months as billions of dollars in unpaid dues — largely from the United States — leave the global body running dangerously low on cash. UN Secretary-General António Guterres says the crisis could force the shutdown of UN headquarters in New York, halt humanitarian coordination and cancel the annual General Assembly of world leaders if funding does not arrive soon.
NEW YORK, 02 FEBRUARY 2026 (THE NEW YORK TIMES)—The United Nations said on Friday that it was facing imminent financial collapse and would run out of money by July if countries, namely the United States, did not pay their annual dues that amount to billions of dollars.
Senior UN officials said that if the cash ran out, the agency would be forced to shut down its landmark headquarters in New York by August. The UN Security Council, a 15-member body responsible for maintaining international peace and stability, convenes its meetings at UN headquarters.
It would also have to cancel the annual General Assembly gathering of world leaders held in September and shut the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which responds to global emergencies like conflicts and natural disasters, it said.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, sent a letter to the Ambassadors of all 196 member states last Thursday warning them of “imminent financial collapse,” saying the organisation’s financial straits this time were different from those in any previous periods, according to a copy of the letter seen by The New York Times.
“The crisis is deepening, threatening programme delivery and risking financial collapse,” Guterres wrote. “And the situation will further deteriorate in the near future. I cannot overstate the urgency of the situation we now face.”
On 30 December, the General Assembly authorised US$3.45 billion for the United Nations’ 2026 budget, covering the organisation’s three core pillars of work: peace and security, sustainable development and human rights.
The United States is responsible for about 95 percent of the money owed to the United Nations, about US$2.2 billion, according to a senior UN official who briefed reporters on the agency’s budget crisis. That amount is a combination of the U.S annual dues for 2025, which has not been paid, and for 2026, the UN official said.
As for comment, the U.S mission to the United Nations referred questions to the State Department, which did not immediately respond.
“It leaves the organisation exposed to structural financial risk and forces a stark choice: Member States must either agree to overhaul our financial rules — or accept the very real prospect of the financial collapse of our organisation,” Guterres wrote.
President Trump, citing mismanagement, waste and redundancy, withdrew the United States in early January from dozens of international organisations, including several UN agencies like the Population Fund.
Trump had already pulled the country out of UNESCO, the UN cultural agency; the World Health Organisation; and the UN Human Rights Council. And he said the United States would reduce funding for peacekeeping operations.
In addition to its annual dues, the United States also owes the United Nations about US$1.9 billion for active peacekeeping missions, US$528 million for closed missions and US$43.6 million for tribunals such as the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, said the senior UN official in the briefing.
The United States has indicated to the United Nations that it would make a payment of about US$160 million for active peacekeeping but would not pay for the tribunals, the senior UN official said. Peacekeeping missions have been instructed to reduce their budgets by 15 percent, the UN official said.
“When it comes to paying, it’s now or never,” said Farhan Haq, a spokesman for the United Nations. “We do not have the sort of cash reserves and the sort of liquidity to keep functioning, as we’ve done in previous years. And this is something that the secretary general has warned with increasing strength each year.”
Haq said that if the United Nations shut down in July, humanitarian work around the world would also be affected and the work of civilian staff hampered. Agencies such as UNICEF, which handles children’s issues; the UN Refugee Agency; and the World Food Program have budgets separate from donations and would continue to operate. But the UN agency that coordinates relief work across agencies would close.
Richard Gowan, the UN director for the International Crisis Group, a conflict-resolution organisation, said that morale was already low among UN staff members across its agencies because of layoffs and shrinking programs. If money were to run out by the summer, Gowan said, one option would be to ask staff members to continue working free for an interim period.
But the real challenge would be to keep conflict mediations, including staff in war zones, and peacekeeping operations overseas afloat without salaries and payments to vendors.
“Guterres has made similar warnings before, and the UN has limped through,” Gowan said. “In the short term, he is probably trying to bounce some big donors into paying up as soon as possible,” he said…. PACNEWS