Budget of the United Nations

The General Assembly also approves the budget of the United Nations, and decides how much money each member state must pay to run the organization.

• Please note that there are two sources of funds for the United Nations and its agencies. One is assessed contribution and another is voluntary contribution.
• Assessed contributions are payments made as part of the obligations that nations undertake when signing treaties. At the UN, assessments on member states finance the UN regular budget and peacekeeping operations, based on each country’s ability to pay.
• Voluntary contributions are left to the discretion of each individual member state. These voluntary contributions make up more than half of total UN funding, and finance most of the United Nations’ humanitarian relief and development agencies, including the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP), and the UN Development Program (UNDP).

The Budget of United Nations can be studied under 4 heads viz. Regular Budget, Peacekeeping Budget, Voluntary Contributions and Arrears.

Regular Budget of United Nations

The UN’s regular budget finances the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the International Court of Justice, and the Secretariat as well as the UN’s special political missions, the largest of which are the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI).

• All UN members are assessed a contribution to the regular budget largely based on per capita income, with a floor of .001 percent to make sure that even the poorest countries contribute something.
• The UN is structured not to rely too heavily on any one member for its funds, so no state’s dues are allowed to exceed 22 percent of the UN’s regular budget; the United States is the only country to have hit that ceiling.
• The top 15 contributing nations supply about 84 percent of the regular budget.

Peacekeeping Budget of United Nations

The UN’s peacekeeping budget finances the UN’s 14 peacekeeping missions with more than 100,000 peacekeepers serving throughout the world. The UN funds its peacekeeping budget with assessments on member states similar to those made for the regular budget but with greater discounts for poorer nations.

• The five permanent members of the Security Council (the U.S., the United Kingdom, France, Russia, and China) make up the difference; they each have veto rights to decide on or suspend any peacekeeping operation.
• While the five members pay a higher rate, the vast majority of peacekeepers come from developing countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Ghana.

Voluntary Contributions

Voluntary contributions are entirely up to the individual country to decide whether or not, and how much, to contribute. These contributions finance most of the United Nations’ humanitarian relief and development agencies. The activities these organizations undertake are U.S. national security investments that would be difficult, if not impossible, for the United States to undertake alone.

Arrears

Arrears are a chronic problem for the United Nations. Many poorer nations cannot afford their full assessment. Other countries, notably the United States in past years, have delayed or withheld payments for reasons unrelated to their ability to pay. Under the UN Charter, member states that are two years in arrears at the UN can lose their vote in the General Assembly. Timely payment of dues is crucial because shortfalls in the UN’s budget can cripple peacekeeping missions and delay humanitarian aid, with costs measured in lives and human suffering.