By Abiola Olawale
Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, has issued a warning, declaring that the UN is at risk of financial collapse by July 2026.
In a letter addressed to member states on Friday, Guterres stated that the UN is at risk of financial collapse by July if immediate action is not taken to resolve a deepening liquidity crisis fueled by unpaid dues and rigid financial regulations.
He wrote in a letter to all 193 member states that they had to honour their mandatory payments or overhaul the organisation’s financial rules to avoid collapse.
Guterres wrote in his letter that the UN had faced financial crises in the past but that the current situation was “categorically different”.
“Decisions not to honour assessed contributions that finance a significant share of the approved regular budget have now been formally announced,” the secretary general said, without naming specific members.
He said the “integrity of the entire system” depended on states adhering to their obligation under the UN charter to pay their “assessed contributions”, adding that 2025 ended with a record amount unpaid – equivalent to 77% of the total owed.
Guterres said a rule that the UN must return unspent money on particular programmes to members if it could not implement a budget created a “double blow” in which it was “expected to give back cash that does not exist”.
“I cannot overstate the urgency of the situation we now face. We cannot execute budgets with uncollected funds, nor return funds we never received.”
As a result, the UN is now returning millions of dollars that it never actually received.
The letter reads: “Just this month, as part of the 2026 assessment, we were compelled to return $227m [£165m] – funds we have not collected.”
“The bottom line is clear,” Guterres wrote. “Either all member states honour their obligations to pay in full and on time – or member states must fundamentally overhaul our financial rules to prevent an imminent financial collapse.”
This development comes after the UN’s largest contributor, the US, refused to contribute to its regular and peacekeeping budgets, and withdrew from several agencies it called a “waste of taxpayer dollars”. Several other members are in arrears or are simply refusing to pay.
The US is the UN’s largest contributor, but President Donald Trump has said it was not fulfilling its “great potential” and has criticised it for failing to support U.S-led peace efforts.
