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The United Nations is bracing for a $500m shortfall in 2026, with at least 3,000 staff expected to lose their jobs as the organization seeks to manage a steep decline in US funding.
The proposed budget will shrink from $3.7bn to $3.2bn, cutting resources by 15.1% and staff posts by 18.8%. The changes will hit the core budget, while reductions in peacekeeping, humanitarian and health programs are also anticipated.
The UN employs around 35,000 people worldwide, but the administration of Secretary General António Guterres is preparing to make significant cuts. Guterres has tried to frame the crisis as an opportunity to streamline an organization that has passed 40,000 resolutions since 1946 and grown into more than 140 entities.
Guy Ryder, Under-Secretary General for Policy, is leading the restructuring effort under a program known as UN80. Agencies have been asked to justify their mandates and relationships with other UN bodies, with the aim of consolidating functions into the UN’s three founding pillars: peace and security, human rights and development.
Funding collapse hits key programs
The crisis follows years of mounting antagonism between Washington and the UN. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has described the postwar global order as “obsolete” and “a weapon being used against us.” The Trump administration has already withdrawn from UNESCO, the World Health Organization and the Human Rights Council.
Former US state department official Allison Lombardo said at a Carnegie Endowment event that the cuts were “more extensive and more permanent than many people thought.” She said US funding could fall from $1.5bn to $300m, with peacekeeping and voluntary contributions eliminated.
The effects are already evident. The World Food Programme, which depended on Washington for half its $9bn budget in 2024, and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, which received 40% of its funding from the US, face major reductions. The US has also ended support for the UN’s Palestinian welfare agency, Unrwa, and sought to close it.
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At a recent briefing, Tom Fletcher of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said global relief efforts were being squeezed. “We’ve only been funded 19% of what we need, which is a 40% drop on where we were last year,” he warned. He said Unicef expected another 6 million children to be out of school, while the WFP could feed only 1 million of the 3 million Afghans in need. UNHCR projected that 11 million refugees could be left without assistance.
Fletcher called the situation “a new age of indifference,” and said weakening the UN amounted to “a reckless act of self-harm.”
