New York: Adopted by the 193-member Assembly on Tuesday, the budget is around $200 million higher than the Secretary-General’s proposal prepared under the UN80 reform initiative. However, it represents a cut of nearly 7 per cent compared to the approved 2025 budget.
The regular budget supports the UN’s central operations, including political affairs, international justice and law, regional development cooperation, human rights, humanitarian activities and public information. It is separate from the UN peacekeeping budget, which runs on a July-to-June fiscal cycle, while the regular budget follows the calendar year.
As negotiations concluded in the Assembly’s Fifth Committee, responsible for administrative and budgetary matters, UN Controller Chandramouli Ramanathan praised delegates for reaching consensus despite a highly compressed and complex process.
Calling the year “one of challenges,” Ramanathan said the Secretariat had been required to prepare a full budget in under six weeks, producing hundreds of budget tables and responding to thousands of queries from oversight bodies and Member States. He highlighted consensus as a defining feature of the process, describing it as “remarkable” given the intensity of negotiations.
Ramanathan cautioned that the adoption of the budget marks the beginning of a demanding implementation phase. From January 1, 2026, around 2,900 positions will be abolished, while more than 1,000 staff separations have already been completed. He stressed that careful management would be required to ensure affected personnel continue to receive salaries and entitlements during the transition.
The Controller also welcomed what he termed a record level of potential advance payments by Member States towards the 2026 budget, urging governments to continue paying their assessed contributions promptly to ensure the organisation’s financial stability.