UN risks ‘imminent financial collapse’, secretary general warns

Submission statement: the UN's financial security is in tatters after the US, its largest contributor ensuring 22% of its funding (2021 numbers), refused to pay its 2025 contribution and cut down its contribution to UN humanitarian programmes from $17 billion to just $2 billion, as part of the Trump administration's offensive on multilateral organizations.

Since Donald Trump's return to power, the US withdrew from numerous UN organizations, like the World Health Organization (WHO), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), or the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), accusing them of being captured by geopolitical actors hostile to the US or promoting "woke" causes.

In September 2025, Donald Trump announced the creation of a new US-led international group dubbed the "Board of Peace" that some fear is aiming to replace the UN and has so far gathered 25 countries, among them Pakistan, Turkey, Argentina or the United Arab Emirates.

Beyond the US, numerous countries like the UK, France or Germany have announced significant cutbacks on their humanitarian and development aid citing domestic budgetary constraints, which will direly impact UN operations. In recent months, UN agencies had to suspend or end operations to provide healthcare and document human rights abuses in Afghanistan, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo or Sudan due to a lack of funding and uncertainty over future payments.