UN80 and the incredible shrinking United Nations

If you have been paying any attention to the United Nations in recent months, you will have heard something about the UN80 Initiative, the latest U.N. reform aimed officially at making the world body operate more efficiently, and unofficially, at persuading the Trump administration not to further slash funding to the United Nations. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres launched the effort in March and appointed Guy Ryder, U.N. undersectary-general for policy, to lead a task force to implement the reforms. The number 80 stands for the 80th anniversary of the U.N.’s founding in 1945. So, what is UN80, why is it important, and why is it generating so much resistance from within the world body? Let’s break it down: UN80 is comprised of three general categories or workstreams. 1. Cost savings and administrative efficiencies: Reforms undertaken by Guterres to save money and make the U.N. more efficient. For instance, turning down the air conditioning in the summer, imposing hiring freezes, ending overtime, terminating building leases, or transferring staff from high-cost duty stations to cheaper cities. 2. Mandate review: Since the U.N.’s founding in 1945, member states have created about 40,000 mandates, or tasks, for the U.N.’s three principal entities — the U.N. General Assembly, the U.N. Security Council, and the U.N. Economic and Social Council — to carry out. The current process is aimed at finding and eliminating overlap in thousands of directives. This task must be agreed by member states. 3. Structural changes and program realignments across the U.N. system reform: While the first two work streams are focused on the U.N. Secretariat, this one is designed to promote reform across the U.N. system and the more than 20 specialized agencies, funds, and programs. It could involve merging U.N. agencies, such as the World Health Organization and UNAIDS, with overlapping responsibilities. Again, these changes will require approval by U.N. member states and the governing boards of the various agencies. The UN80 task force has also appointed seven department heads to recommend how the U.N. chief’s cost-cutting targets can be achieved in their respective areas, from peacekeeping to development. The proposals of the seven so-called clusters will be included in a revised 2026 budget proposal presented to member states for consideration in the coming weeks. Some may be kicked down the road for consideration in the 2027 budget. Money crunch Looming in the background of this reform debate is a chronic cash crunch, caused by ballooning U.S. arrears — Washington owes the U.N. more than $1.7 billion, according to figures compiled by the Better World Campaign, mostly in unpaid peacekeeping dues — exacerbated by late payments by the U.S., China, and other key donors. The current U.N. reform effort is unlikely to resolve the liquidity crisis, which would require the U.S. to pay its bills in full and on time. The U.S. has been paying its bills late since the 1980s. Belt-tightening exercise U.N. chief Guterres is proposing that member states eliminate 20% of posts in the U.N. Secretariat, which employed more than 33,000 people in 2024, and reduce spending in the U.N.’s $3.72 billion regular budget by 15% to 20% in 2026. The U.N.’s more than 30 relatively independent specialized agencies and affiliates, including the World Food Programme, UNICEF, and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, are imposing their own cuts. “This is not simply a cost-cutting, downsizing effort,” said Ryder. “The objective is to make the U.N. better.” Critics see it differently: They see a panicked quest to acquiesce to an American diktat, and which will ultimately weaken the U.N.’s ability to effectively carry out its job. “Basically, [the current funding crisis is] because the U.S. stopped paying,” Ian Richards, head of the U.N. staff union in Geneva, told Devex. Now, he said, “we have an extended liquidity crisis being dressed up as an opportunity to make the U.N. fit for the future.” “There is nothing wrong with reform, in principle, it's just this is a slash-and-burn approach,” said Stewart Patrick, senior fellow and director of the Global Order and Institutions Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “Ironically, although the United Nations has been alarmed by the Draconian cuts by the Trump administration pursuant to the activities of DOGE, they are basically unwittingly replicating a DOGE experiment at the United Nations.” Will UN80 assuage the Americans? Over the past seven months, the Trump administration has imposed large-scale cuts in voluntary funding across the U.N. system, forcing U.N. health and humanitarian agencies to lay off thousands of employees. In the coming days, the U.S. State Department is expected to release a review of international organizations, including the U.N., raising concerns about additional U.S. funding cuts. So far, the Trump administration has been relatively noncommittal about Guterres’ UN80 initiative, endorsing U.N. proposals to lay off staff, questioning the cost-savings from relocating staff, and proposing the U.N. claw back costly staff benefits. But in his nomination hearing, President Donald Trump’s nominee as U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Mike Waltz, said the president should get the credit for spurring the U.N. into action. “I do not think Secretary General Guterres would have his UN80 plan already on the table if he didn’t take President Trump very seriously.” What about the rest of the UN membership? The UN80 Initiative has so far received a cold response from U.N. staff members, U.N. experts, and other delegations, who view it as a haphazard exercise at appeasement that is unlikely to make the U.N. more relevant. Over the coming months, U.N. member states will negotiate the terms of the U.N.’s 2026 budget, offering an indication of whether the rest of the world is prepared to back UN80 and the secretary-general’s austerity reforms. It’s not at all clear that they will.