The United Nations General Assembly has approved a regular budget of $3.45 billion for the organisation’s operations in 2026, following weeks of intensive negotiations and in the context of the UN’s major reform initiative, UN80.
The budget, adopted on Tuesday by the 193-member General Assembly, authorises $3,450,426,300 for the coming year to support the UN’s three core pillars: peace and security, sustainable development, and human rights.
It largely reflects Secretary-General António Guterres’ reform proposals, including a 15 per cent reduction in financial resources and a nearly 19 per cent cut in staffing.
The regular budget funds the UN’s core activities, such as political affairs, international justice and law, regional development cooperation, human rights, humanitarian affairs, and public information. It is separate from the UN peacekeeping budget, which operates on a July 1 to June 30 fiscal year, while the regular budget runs on a calendar-year basis.
UN Controller Chandramouli Ramanathan commended delegates of the Fifth Committee, the General Assembly’s main administrative and budgetary body as negotiations concluded.
He praised the committee for successfully navigating a complex and compressed process to reach a timely agreement.
“It has been a year of challenges,” Ramanathan said, noting that the Secretariat was required to assemble a complete budget in less than six weeks, produce hundreds of detailed tables, and respond to thousands of questions from oversight bodies and member states.
However, he cautioned that adoption of the budget marks the beginning, rather than the end, of a demanding implementation phase.
Ramanathan disclosed that 2,900 positions will be abolished from January 1, 2026, adding that more than 1,000 staff separations have already been finalised. He stressed that careful management would be required to ensure affected staff continue to receive salaries and entitlements during the transition.
He also welcomed what he described as a record level of potential advance payments by member states toward the 2026 budget and appealed for the continued prompt payment of assessed contributions.
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