For many United Nations fans, the last several weeks have provided a ray of sunshine following an otherwise dark year on the foreign aid front. The Trump administration pledged to spend $2 billion at the U.N. in 2026 on humanitarian relief, and both houses of Congress agreed to fund U.N. programs the White House had sought to eliminate.
But this week, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned the agency nevertheless faces the risk of “imminent financial collapse.” If member states, principally the United States, don’t either pay their dues in full and on time, or at least agree to overhaul the organization’s financial rules to enable it to manage a mammoth cash crunch, the U.N. will be in dire straits.
The bleak warning underscored the degree to which recent pledges by the Trump administration and the U.S. Congress for the U.N. in 2026 don’t go nearly far enough to address a slow-moving financial crisis. It comes just weeks after the U.N. membership adopted a $3.4 billion administrative budget for the coming year, representing a $270 million reduction from the 2025 budget.
About the author
Colum Lynch
Colum Lynch is an award-winning reporter and Senior Global Reporter for Devex. He covers the intersection of development, diplomacy, and humanitarian relief at the United Nations and beyond. Prior to Devex, Colum reported on foreign policy and national security for Foreign Policy Magazine and the Washington Post. Colum was awarded the 2011 National Magazine Award for digital reporting for his blog Turtle Bay. He has also won an award for groundbreaking reporting on the U.N.’s failure to protect civilians in Darfur.
