The UN plans to cut nearly a fifth of its posts as unpaid member dues climb to $1.59 trillion.
Published on December 2, 2025
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said the UN will cut its budget by 15.1 percent and cut staff by 18.8 percent in 2026 as unpaid arrears from member states rise to $1.59 trillion.
UN chiefs announced next year’s budget on Monday, which they set at $3.24 billion – a cut of $577m from 2025.
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As of September, the shortfall is due to unpaid arrears from the United States, China, Russia and Mexico, according to a separate UN statement.
Guterres said the budget of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees – UNRWA – would remain intact due to high levels of demand in Palestine.
“I decided to exempt UNRWA from any cuts that would have a dramatic impact on the backbone of the entire humanitarian response in Gaza,” Guterres said. The budget for the “Development Account and Advocacy for Africa’s Development” will also remain at the 2025 level, he said.
The UN will make up the shortfall by cutting 2,681 positions across multiple UN agencies, which he said “relate to tasks that, in our view, could be better done by others or could be efficiently reduced”.
Some 18 percent of UN posts are already vacant due to an ongoing liquidity crisis from member arrears and other debts, the secretary-general said. They are not related to the posts targeted for cuts, he added.
“Those vacancies are not related to a political decision of strategic priority, but simply due to the fact that people left and because of the liquidity crisis we don’t have the money for replacements,” he said.
The budget for special political campaigns will be $543.6 million in 2026, down from $149.5 million, or 21.6 percent, a year ago, he said.
The cuts will be made by closing some missions and curtailing other ongoing operations.
The UN has gradually reduced its presence in New York, home to the UN headquarters in some of the world’s most expensive commercial real estate.
Guterres said the UN plans to terminate the two leases in New York in late 2027, saving $24.5 million annually starting in 2029. The UN has already saved $126 million by closing other New York offices since 2017, he said.