UN on Brink of Financial Collapse, Guterres Warns
In correspondence distributed to member countries—reviewed Friday by media—Guterres underscored the "gravity" of current circumstances and declared the "situation is categorically different."
"Decisions not to honor assessed contributions that finance a significant share of the approved regular budget have now been formally announced," he stated, characterizing the development as "untenable."
He presented two "stark" alternatives: "Member States must either agree to overhaul our financial rules – or accept the very real prospect of the financial collapse of our Organization."
"In other words, we are trapped in a Kafkaesque cycle; expected to give back cash that does not exist," he emphasized.
Observing that existing liquidity management mechanisms have become unworkable, he explained "under the current financial rules, the more we save, the more we are penalized."
"The crisis is deepening, threatening programme delivery and risking financial collapse," Guterres warned, cautioning that "the situation will further deteriorate in the near future."
He highlighted that the UN "ended 2025 with a record $1.568 billion in outstanding dues, more than double those of the previous year."
Absent substantial improvements in revenue collection, the organization cannot "fully execute the 2026 programme budget approved in December," he cautioned.
"Worse still, based on historical trends, regular budget cash could run out by July," he added, disclosing that peacekeeping deployments for 2025-2026 face 15% reductions.
Appealing for "concerted effort by Member States" to reverse this "vicious cycle," Guterres asserted: "Either all Member States honour their obligations to pay in full and on time – or Member States must fundamentally overhaul our financial rules to prevent an imminent financial collapse."
Organization Confronts 'Liquidity Crisis'
When questioned about the correspondence during a press briefing, UN chief spokesperson Farhan Haq stated that "the key point is to underscore the gravity of the current financial situation that the United Nations faces."
"The Secretary-General has, as you know, repeatedly made clear the problem both of non-payment of dues by Member States and the related problem of the UN being forced to repay Member States for budget money that it does not spend," he explained, acknowledging the "unsustainable trajectory."
Haq stressed that the UN confronts a "liquidity crisis."
Referencing the "record $1.56 billion in outstanding dues," Haq cautioned that the organization faces "a real danger of running out of money" imminently.
Haq clarified that the UN lacks "the sort of cash reserves and the sort of liquidity to keep functioning, as we've done in previous years."
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