How different US administrations funded the UN system
Between 2013 and 2023, more than a quarter of the U.N.'s total revenue from government donors came from the United States.
The future of the multilateral system, particularly the United Nations, hangs in the balance as the decline of U.S. aid continues. In the past few months, Devex has reported extensively on the effect of the U.S. government’s aid freeze on the multilateral system. Recently, we found out that 17 multilaterals saw a $4.1 billion cut in their potential revenue, according to a leaked list of USAID award terminations. In this analysis, we examined historical data to see how different U.S. administrations — from Barack Obama’s second presidency, Donald Trump’s first term, to Joe Biden’s tenure — funded the U.N. system. We used the financial statistics data from the U.N. System Chief Executives Board for Coordination, or CEB, to see trends in U.S. contributions. The data is only up to 2023, meaning that it only covers up to the Biden administration’s third year. To make the year-on-year comparisons as accurate as possible, we converted all figures to 2018 U.S. dollar constant prices, which is the midpoint. Top-level figures The U.N. generates its income via two mechanisms: assessed contributions and voluntary contributions. Assessed contributions are the member countries’ mandatory payment for the regular budget and peacekeeping operations budgets. Contributions are determined through a formula that takes into consideration a member country’s capacity to pay. On the other hand, voluntary contributions are donations to U.N. specialized agencies, funds, and programs. They are either earmarked contributions, which are allocated for specific recipients, sectors, and programs, or unearmarked contributions, which can be used by the recipient agencies however they see fit. A small portion of the U.N.’s total income comes from payments for service provisions, which is largely the case for the United Nations Office for Project Services. During his first term in office, Trump also severed funding to several U.N. agencies. However, the effect is not as visible when we only look at the overall contributions to the U.N. system. CEB data shows that the total contributions of the U.S. to the U.N. system remained mostly flat during the three administrations. From $8.3 billion in 2013, the annual contributions of the U.S. to the U.N. system increased to $10.7 billion the following year. It remained within the $10 billion to $11 billion range until 2019. It then increased to $11.3 billion in 2020 and $11.6 billion in 2021, before skyrocketing to $15.5 billion in 2022. However, it went down to $10.7 billion in 2023. The data also shows that the three U.S. administrations prioritized mostly the same U.N. agencies. Some of the agencies that consistently ranked among the largest recipients of U.S. contributions across administrations were the World Food Programme, UNAIDS, and the International Atomic Energy Agency. UNHCR, which is among the organizations named by the Trump administration to be reviewed, was the second largest recipient of U.S. support during his first term. The UN Refugee Agency received $6.7 billion from the U.S. between 2017 and 2020 — 38% of its $17.5 billion total revenue in that period. Both the Obama and Biden administrations provided nearly the same level of support. <div class='tableauPlaceholder' id='viz1746434106846' style='position: relative'><noscript><a href='#'><img alt='Dashboard 2 ' src='https://public.tableau.com/static/images/U_/U_S_contributionstotheU_N_/Dashboard2/1_rss.png' style='border: none' /></a></noscript><object class='tableauViz' style='display:none;'><param name='host_url' value='https%3A%2F%2Fpublic.tableau.com%2F' /> <param name='embed_code_version' value='3' /> <param name='site_root' value='' /><param name='name' value='U_S_contributionstotheU_N_/Dashboard2' /><param name='tabs' value='no' /><param name='toolbar' value='yes' /><param name='static_image' value='https://public.tableau.com/static/images/U_/U_S_contributionstotheU_N_/Dashboard2/1.png' /> <param name='animate_transition' value='yes' /><param name='display_static_image' value='yes' /><param name='display_spinner' value='yes' /><param name='display_overlay' value='yes' /><param name='display_count' value='yes' /><param name='language' value='en-US' /><param name='device' value='desktop' /><param name='showShareOptions' value='false' /></object></div> <script type='text/javascript'> var divElement = document.getElementById('viz1746434106846'); var vizElement = divElement.getElementsByTagName('object')[0]; if ( divElement.offsetWidth > 800 ) { vizElement.style.width='590px';vizElement.style.height='727px';} else if ( divElement.offsetWidth > 500 ) { vizElement.style.width='590px';vizElement.style.height='727px';} else { vizElement.style.width='100%';vizElement.style.height='727px';} var scriptElement = document.createElement('script'); scriptElement.src = 'https://public.tableau.com/javascripts/api/viz_v1.js'; vizElement.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, vizElement); </script> <i style=font-style: georgia;”>U.S. contributions to U.N. agencies from 2013 to 2023, based on CEB data.</i> How much was spent on voluntary contributions? As mentioned, the assessed contributions of the U.S. is a mandatory payment that is determined through the U.N.’s own calculations that take into consideration the gross national income and national debt, among others. This means that the changes in assessed contributions are affected more by the donor’s economy than the political climate. However, this does not mean that assessed contributions are completely shielded from any political instability. What’s more susceptible to fluctuations is the voluntary contributions, which, as the name suggests, rely entirely on the sitting government’s will. Many U.N. agencies, including the United Nations Development Programme, UNICEF, and World Health Organization, are mainly funded via voluntary contributions. CEB data shows that during the Obama administration, 20 U.N. agencies enjoyed an upward trend in voluntary contributions while five agencies saw the opposite. The other 13 agencies did not report their revenues or have less than three reporting years. The United Nations Industrial Development Organization had the biggest real-term leap, from just $34,211 in 2013 to $1.5 million in 2016 — over a 4,200% increase. The voluntary contribution of the U.S. to the U.N. Secretariat also jumped by 603%, from $21 million to $147.6 million in the same period. The other agencies that enjoyed large increases are the International Trade Centre, receiving a 444.8% increase; UN-Habitat, a 316% jump, and the U.N. Environment Programme, which saw a 112.4% spike. On the opposite side, the World Meteorological Organization saw the biggest decline, from $11 million in 2013 to $2.7 million in 2016, or a 75.3% decrease. The other four agencies with similar trends were the Pan American Health Organization, International Maritime Organization, International Labour Organization, and International Civil Aviation Organization. During his first term, Trump defunded the U.N. Population Fund and UNRWA, while nine other agencies received reduced voluntary contributions. On the other hand, 19 U.N. agencies experienced an increase in funding compared to the administration's initial allocations. UNEP had the biggest increase during the first Trump administration, at 385.5% — from $3.3 million in 2017 to $15.9 million in 2020. The U.N. Institute for Training and Research ranked next at 88.4%, ITC at 74.7%, and IAEA at 49.5%. WHO suffered the biggest loss at 73.2% — from $411.8 million in 2017 to $110.4 million in 2020. The United Nations Capital Development Fund followed at 55.2%, UN-Habitat at 53.7%, and WMO at 53.2% The number of U.N. agencies that experienced a decline in voluntary funding jumped to 14 organizations during the first three years of the Biden administration, with 15 receiving an increase. UN-Habitat suffered the sharpest dip at 74.7% — from $11.5 million in 2021 to $2.9 million in 2023. The U.S. gave the UN-Habitat a mere $42,000 in 2022. The U.N. Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute also had a similar fate, with a 71.6% cut in voluntary contributions. Then ITC at 40.7%, WFP at 26.9%, and UN Women at 26.2%. On the other hand, UNCDF’s voluntary contributions from the U.S. grew by 890% during the Biden administration — from $3.8 million in 2021 to $37.6 million in 2023. WTO followed at 150%, WMO at 103.8%, and UNFPA at 85.4%. <div class='tableauPlaceholder' id='viz1746434196672' style='position: relative'><noscript><a href='#'><img alt='U.S. contributions to U.N. agencies ' src='https://public.tableau.com/static/images/U_/U_S_contributionstotheU_N_2013-2023/U_S_contributionstoU_N_agencies/1_rss.png' style='border: none' /></a></noscript><object class='tableauViz' style='display:none;'><param name='host_url' value='https%3A%2F%2Fpublic.tableau.com%2F' /> <param name='embed_code_version' value='3' /> <param name='site_root' value='' /><param name='name' value='U_S_contributionstotheU_N_2013-2023/U_S_contributionstoU_N_agencies' /><param name='tabs' value='no' /><param name='toolbar' value='yes' /><param name='static_image' value='https://public.tableau.com/static/images/U_/U_S_contributionstotheU_N_2013-2023/U_S_contributionstoU_N_agencies/1.png' /> <param name='animate_transition' value='yes' /><param name='display_static_image' value='yes' /><param name='display_spinner' value='yes' /><param name='display_overlay' value='yes' /><param name='display_count' value='yes' /><param name='language' value='en-US' /><param name='filter' value='publish=yes' /><param name='device' value='desktop' /><param name='showShareOptions' value='false' /></object></div> <script type='text/javascript'> var divElement = document.getElementById('viz1746434196672'); var vizElement = divElement.getElementsByTagName('object')[0]; if ( divElement.offsetWidth > 800 ) { vizElement.style.width='590px';vizElement.style.height='577px';} else if ( divElement.offsetWidth > 500 ) { vizElement.style.width='590px';vizElement.style.height='577px';} else { vizElement.style.width='100%';vizElement.style.height='727px';} var scriptElement = document.createElement('script'); scriptElement.src = 'https://public.tableau.com/javascripts/api/viz_v1.js'; vizElement.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, vizElement); </script> <i style=font-style: georgia;”>U.S. contributions to U.N. agencies from 2013 to 2023, based on CEB data.</i> Try out Devex Pro Funding today with a free five-day trial, and explore funding opportunities from over 850 sources in addition to our analysis and news content.
The future of the multilateral system, particularly the United Nations, hangs in the balance as the decline of U.S. aid continues.
In the past few months, Devex has reported extensively on the effect of the U.S. government’s aid freeze on the multilateral system. Recently, we found out that 17 multilaterals saw a $4.1 billion cut in their potential revenue, according to a leaked list of USAID award terminations.
In this analysis, we examined historical data to see how different U.S. administrations — from Barack Obama’s second presidency, Donald Trump’s first term, to Joe Biden’s tenure — funded the U.N. system.
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Miguel Tamonan is a Senior Development Analyst at Devex, where he analyzes data from public and private donors to produce content and special reports for Pro and Pro Funding readers. He has a bachelor’s degree in Political Science with a Major in International Relations from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.
