Exclusive: Inside the UN's budget showdown

It might just be the budget negotiation from hell. Over the past few weeks, number crunchers from governments have been holed up in the United Nations basement, grappling with a $3.2 billion U.N. administrative budget, a gruelling project which involves sifting through several hundred pages of line items and notes, and fighting over some 774 amendments that fill more than 130 pages on a draft budget resolution. “It’s almost like a game of chicken,” said Daniel Forti, head of U.N. affairs for the International Crisis Group. “If you open this up to line-by-line negotiations, then everyone's in real trouble, because it's just too much to do in too short a period of time.” The negotiations in the U.N.’s budget committee, also known as the Fifth Committee, represents the first major test of whether the U.N. member states will endorse Secretary-General António Guterres’ reform initiative, known as UN80, as well as his calls for a 15% cut in the 2026 budget and a reduction of more than 18% of its posts — though some 55% of the 2,681 posts marked for elimination are currently vacant. Guterres’ budget would shave about $577 million, or 15.1%, of the 2025 budget. “We are making the easiest cuts possible in the shortest time available,” said Ronny Patz, an independent financial expert who tracks U.N. spending. “I'm not fully convinced that there is a coherent vision of where this is going. … And I don't think anybody is willing to really address this head-on.” The delegates are hurtling towards a Dec. 24 deadline for agreement — though talks could potentially continue through the holidays until Dec. 31. The process has allowed little time to engage in a line-by-line negotiation over pet projects, and raised the prospect that holiday celebrations will have to be canceled. Experts say there is little hope that a budget can be finalized by the end of the year unless governments drop their demands for line-by-line changes to the secretary-general’s budget and agree to a broad package that resembles Guterres’ blueprint for reform. A U.N. General Assembly expert budget group — known as the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, or ACABQ — expressed concern earlier this month that the rushed effort to implement the reform initiative and additional cost-cutting measures would hamper the U.N. capacity to fulfill its mandate. “While the initiative aims to enhance efficiency and coherence across the United Nations system, the scale of reductions is expected to impact the capacity of [U.N.] entities to sustain core functions as previously implemented and meet mandated deliverables effectively,” the advisory committee wrote. But in the weeks leading up to the deadline, governments have been digging in, loading the budget with a wish list of programs — or additional cuts — or pushing back on Guterres’ proposals for downsizing the organization, according to an internal memo that documents several hundred proposed government amendments to the U.N. draft budget. Some are somewhat peculiar, such as a Russian and Belarusian proposal to permit support dogs and cats to accompany delegates in the budget negotiations. Israel, meanwhile, issued a call for a “Meatless Monday” menu in the U.N.’s eateries. No end to cuts The U.S. ambassador for U.N. management and reform, Jeff Bartos, has forcefully backed Guterres’ budget proposal, telling the U.N. membership, “it cannot backtrack in any way.” But he said that is merely a “first step in our wider reform mission.” Behind closed doors, the U.S. has been pressing for far deeper financial cuts, targeting staff benefits and entitlements, funding for Palestinian relief, and a host of other programs. The U.S. has threatened to end all U.S. contributions to the U.N. if the final budget includes funding for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinians in the Near East, also known as UNRWA. The U.S. push for new cuts is playing out against a background of growing financial crisis, much of it caused by the United States. The Trump administration — which has already amassed about $1.5 billion in peacekeeping arrears — has yet to make a payment towards the U.N.’s 2024 or 2025 regular budget. And it has not indicated whether it plans to fund the U.N. budget. The State Department, which has not replied to multiple requests for comment by this reporter for several months, did not respond to a request for comment for a list of detailed questions. A game of chicken It remains unclear at this stage whether the key players are committed to fighting for their favored programs or simply seeking to strengthen their hands in negotiations, before ultimately giving in. A group of so-called like-minded countries, including Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, and the U.S., has been negotiating a potential compromise. In the coming days, Forti said, an agreement will “take everyone holstering their guns,” or else pushing it “down to the wire.” In many ways, the negotiations are simply relitigating familiar feuds over U.N. priorities. China and the Group of 77, a coalition of lower- and middle-income countries that often negotiates with Beijing, is pressing to secure more jobs for nationals from the global south, arguing that key U.N. agencies, from the UN Human Rights and the UN Refugee Agency, are top heavy with Western nationals — even though the new high commissioner for refugees is an Iraqi national. They have also advocated for the preservation of more mundane perks, including preserving subsidized parking rates at the U.N. headquarters garage. Russia and Belarus, meanwhile, want free language courses for members of their diplomats’ families, and the preservation of jobs for Russian-language interpreters. The cuts they do advocate generally touch on their sensitivity to scrutiny of their human rights record, including a provision calling for the elimination of funding for investigating missing persons in Syria during the Russian-backed regime of the ousted Syrian leader, Bashar al-Assad, now in exile in Moscow. Palestinian redline Israel and the U.S. are locked in a battle with much of the rest of the membership over the future of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine, with supporters of the aid agency, including Turkey, calling for full funding for the relief outfit, which provides assistance to more than 5 million Palestinian refugees. The U.N. contends that UNRWA’s work, particularly in Gaza, where more than 300 of its workers have been killed by Israeli forces, is vital to the delivery of vital lifesaving food and medicine. Israel and the U.S. are seeking an end to all funding for UNRWA, citing the infiltration of its ranks by Hamas members, and proposing that other U.N. agencies, businesses, and aid outfits can do the job. A U.S. amendment “decides to reduce resources for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East by 100 percent,” according to a U.S. amendment. But diplomats familiar with the negotiations say that the U.N. budget will almost certainly fund UNRWA, notwithstanding U.S. threats. Israel is also engaged in a culture war with the G77 over the appropriation of resources to combat antisemitism or colonialism. Israel wants more money to tackle antisemitism, while the G77 wants to maintain a program on colonialism. Israel is also seeking a provision that would require that governments be consulted when the U.N. bookstore at headquarters in New York decides to sell books about their countries, “to respect cultural sensitivities, maintain neutrality, and ensure balanced representation in the selection and dissemination of such materials.” Switzerland, reeling from an exodus of U.N. agencies from Geneva in search of cheaper digs, has urged the U.N. to reconsider, arguing that the search for short-term savings could end up costing more in the long run. “The estimated costs of the relocations exceed the anticipated potential savings for the 2026 financial year,” the Swiss delegation noted in an amendment. Switzerland also highlighted unspecified reports by U.N. oversight bodies “highlighting fragmentation, productivity loss and underestimation of costs associated with earlier decentralization and relocation efforts.” The closed-door talks provide greater insight into the U.S. longer term financial aims. It is seeking an additional 15% in reductions on U.N. departments that have so far been spared cuts in the U.N. secretary-general’s budget. For instance, it has proposed a $2.85 million cut in the U.N. development account, merging the U.N.’s peacekeeping and political affairs departments, folding a number of U.N. economic agencies — including the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development, or UNCTAD, and the International Trade Centre into a single entity. Other U.S. proposed cuts include: • $1.34 million for the International Trade Centre • Reduce travel by $3.8 million in 2026 • Require all staff to fly economy class on trips under 11 hours, and only senior officials — assistant secretaries-general and undersecretaries-general — can fly business class on such long flights • Cut $199,100 for the 80th anniversary celebration of the International Court of Justice • Cut $160,800 for furniture and equipment • Cut $7.905 million in technical cooperation in the area of economic and social development • Reduce travel to international civil service commission by $213,200 • Reduce resources to the U.N.’s Geneva office by $1.247 million, and its New York headquarters by $4.102 million • Consolidate security under the U.N. Department of Safety and Security