UN risks ‘imminent financial collapse’: Guterres warns

UN Secretary General António Guterres has issued a stark warning, the United Nations faces "imminent financial collapse" as member states withhold dues, in a letter to all 193 nations.

UN Secretary General António Guterres has warned that the United Nations risks "imminent financial collapse" as member states fail to pay their dues, plunging the organization into a deepening crisis.

In a stark letter to all 193 member states, Guterres revealed that cash reserves could dry up by July 2026, jeopardizing critical program delivery worldwide. He urged nations to honor mandatory contributions or reform the UN's financial rules to avert disaster, according to a report by Reuters.

The crisis follows the UN's top donor, the United States, withholding contributions to its regular and peacekeeping budgets while pulling out of agencies it deems a "waste of taxpayer dollars." Several other member states remain in arrears or outright refuse to pay.

Despite the UN General Assembly's partial financial system overhaul in late 2025, the organization grapples with a massive cash crunch.

At its Geneva headquarters, stark warning signs blanket the premises. In desperate cost-cutting moves, escalators stay off, and heating is dialed down. Guterres stressed in his letter that while past financial woes have hit the UN, this crisis is "categorically different."

Guterres emphasised that the UN Charter obliges member states to pay assessed contributions, warning in his letter, cited in a Reuters report, that 2025 closed with a record 77% of dues unpaid, threatening the "integrity of the entire system."

He also highlighted a ‘double blow’, rules forcing the UN to refund unspent program funds it never received. "We cannot execute budgets with uncollected funds, nor return funds we never received," he wrote. This month alone, the UN had to ‘return’ $227 million in uncollected 2026 assessments.

"The bottom line is clear," Guterres stated, "Either all member states pay in full and on time or overhaul financial rules to avert imminent collapse."

The crisis hits amid chronic underfunding for humanitarian work, worsened over the past year.

The United States, the UN's biggest donor, skipped its 2025 regular budget payment, gave only 30% for peacekeeping, and under Trump, withdrew from 31 UN agencies in January to slash "globalist" spending.

Late last year, it pledged just $2 billion for humanitarian aid, far below prior levels, urging the UN to ‘adapt or die.’

Cuts from allies like the UK and Germany compound the strain. Guterres had previously flagged a ‘race to bankruptcy’ concern in October, mirroring the deepening liquidity crunch.

The concern comes as US President Trump is sidelining the UN via his Gaza-focused ‘Board of Peace’.