{"id":1187,"date":"2026-01-01T22:51:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T17:21:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/?p=1187"},"modified":"2026-01-01T22:51:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T17:21:25","slug":"un-starts-2026-with-shrunken-budget-of-3-45-billion-19-per-cent-job-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/?p=1187","title":{"rendered":"UN starts 2026 with shrunken budget of $3.45 billion, 19 per cent job cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"450\" height=\"317\" data-id=\"1188\" src=\"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/UNO.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1188\" srcset=\"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/UNO.png 450w, https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/UNO-300x211.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Arul Louis<br>United Nations, Facing a severe cash crunch, the world organisation starts 2026 with a shrunken budget of $3.45 billion and scheduled 19 per cent job cuts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The General Assembly has adopted a budget that broadly reflects Secretary-General Antonio Guterres&#8217; proposal, but is higher than the $3.238 billion he had asked for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This year&#8217;s budget is about $270 million, or 7.25 per cent lower than 2025&#8217;s $3.72 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This budget covers only the main UN operations, and the budgets for the peacekeeping operations and other UN outfits, like UNESCO, the World Health Organisation, are separate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>India&#8217;s share of the regular budget is 1.016 per cent based on an assessment calculated using a complex formula based on the gross national income, population and other factors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Speaking earlier to the Assembly&#8217;s Fifth Committee, which deals with the budget, Assistant Secretary-General Chandramouli Ramanathan said that as part of the belt-tightening, 2,900 positions will be abolished as of Friday, and about 1,000 employees had agreed to leave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>About the budget process that required arduous negotiations among 193 member countries, Ramanathan, the UN&#8217;s top financial official, said, &#8220;That is something remarkable that you should not underestimate.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the UN, the arrears on December 1 were $1.586 billion &#8212; $709 million in dues for 2024, and $877 million for 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because of this, Ramanathan appealed to member countries to send in their 2026 dues as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before the Assembly adopted the budget unanimously, a Russian amendment relating to provisions for investigations into human rights violations in Syria, and another from Cuba on the Secretary-General&#8217;s adviser on the right or duty of nations to protect citizens against serious atrocities were defeated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>India abstained on both amendments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The United States is the top contributor to the UN, assessed for 22 per cent of the budget, followed by China, responsible for 20 per cent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The US under President Donald Trump, a vehement critic of the UN, has held back its contribution to the UN for 2025, even though it has been approved by Congress, creating a serious cash crunch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Trump has proposed cutting US contributions to next year&#8217;s regular budget by $610 million, and this could affect the viability of the budget that has been adopted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arul LouisUnited Nations, Facing a severe cash crunch, the world organisation starts 2026 with a shrunken budget of $3.45 billion and scheduled 19 per cent job cuts. The General Assembly [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1188,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-display","category-international","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1187"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1189,"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1187\/revisions\/1189"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}