UN Launches Reform Initiative as it Faces Funding Cuts

(FILES) UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivers a speech at the opening of the 58th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, on February 24, 2025. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

The UN chief launched a new initiative Wednesday to reform the United Nations as it approaches its 80th anniversary, saying the 193-member global organization needs an urgent update to deal with major funding reductions and still tackle the world's challenges.
Secretary-General António Guterres dismissed any relationship between his UN80 Initiative and cuts to foreign aid and other programs that US President Donald Trump and ally Elon Musk say will make the US government more efficient, The Associated Press reported.
“We are talking about completely different processes, methodologies and objectives,” Guterres told reporters. “This is a continuation and an intensification of work that we have always been doing.”
He said the UN initiative’s objective will be to present member states with proposals for improving the way the organization works, reviewing the increasing number of mandates from the UN Security Council and General Assembly, and making structural changes to streamline operations.
Guterres and his predecessors in past decades have struggled to reform the United Nations, which was established following World War II, and bring it into a modern era with different powers, new technology and greater global divisions.
One key problem is that while the secretary-general is the UN’s chief executive, power rests with the 193 member nations that have very different ideas about the UN and the world.
The United Nations also has faced sharp criticism for its failure to preserve international peace and security — its key mission — with critics pointing to the wars in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan and Congo, to name a few. The UN has been key to providing humanitarian aid to millions of people and for its work helping refugees and children.
Trump signed an executive order saying some UN agencies and bodies have drifted from their mission to promote peace and prevent future global conflicts and ordered a review of their operations.
“I’ve always felt that the UN has tremendous potential,” Trump has said. “It’s not living up to that potential right now. ... They’ve got to get their act together.”
Stressing that the United Nations reflects the world, Guterres said these are times of intense uncertainty and unpredictability.
He said the UN’s work is affected by multiplying conflicts, inadequate progress in reducing poverty, widespread flouting of international law, violations of human rights and the lack of guardrails for new technologies, including artificial intelligence — to name a few.
“And all of them are aggravated by major reductions of funding for humanitarian aid and development cooperation,” the secretary-general said. “In many cases, these obstacles are fueling dangerous levels of geopolitical tensions and divisions.”
Guterres didn’t name any countries, but the Trump administration has dismantled the US Agency for International Development, which was in charge of humanitarian aid, and cut 83% of USAID's programs. Other countries, including the United Kingdom, also are reducing humanitarian aid.
He said the UN’s resources have been shrinking, pointing to its liquidity crisis for at least the past seven years because not all member states pay their yearly dues, and many don’t pay on time.
Guterres said the UN80 Initiative is not only about reforming the UN but about “better serving people whose very lives depend on us” and “taxpayers around the world who underwrite everything we do.”
The initiative will cover not only the UN Secretariat but all its funds and agencies and offices in Geneva, Nairobi and Vienna. It will be led by UN Undersecretary-General for Policy Guy Ryder, who will head a task force of top officials from the UN system, Guterres said.
The UN budget for 2025, which was adopted last December, is $3.72 billion. The US, with the world's biggest economy, is expected to pay 22%. China, with the second-largest economy, just had its share raised to 20%.
Guterres said he hopes to move as soon as possible to take action in areas where he has authority and will urge member states “to consider the many decisions that rest with them.”