Latest News in UN Governance & Reform

While WHO is struggling to adapt to the funding challenges posed by the withdrawal of the United States, it also has a significant problem of late payments by member states in 2024 and 2025. WHO is still missing $215 million of assessed (mandatory) payments for 2024. 25% of those 2024 arrears stem from the United States, which was still a member of WHO in 2024. At the same time, 75% of the arrears are from other member states, indicating there is a larger problem than just the new US administration.

A leaked early memo from the US State Department indicates a desire to slash all funding for international peacekeeping and to reduce contributions to all international organizations to $169 million from $1.5 billion, which would likely also eliminate most of its funding to the UN regular budget. It will be challenging to try and negotiate a consensus at the second resumed session, if it is unclear whether a key member state will uphold its commitments made during the session.

WFP is one of the only UN entities to have a separate management plan to support the Strategic Plan.WHile highlighting the actual complexities of managing a global humanitarian agencies, it also ensure transparency and accountability for how money is spent and where cuts need to be made. Interestingly, during the past WFP Governance Review, several member state stakeholders complained that it was a very complicated technical document.

This will be WFP's first localization policy. WFP defines localization as a "process that puts local and national actors in the lead and shifts the way WFP’s humanitarian and development work is designed, delivered and funded to better respond to the food security and nutrition priorities and unique needs of affected people in all their diversity." Discussions on empowering local actors to lead and implement humanitarian and development programming have long been underway across civil society but are still a somewhat new issue for many international organizations. Given the current funding crisis and larger rejection of traditional aid models across multiple countries and regions, localization discussions will likely gain prominence as a policy and operational business model in coming months and years.

MOPAN is an independent network of member states who work together – as responsible shareholders and funders – to improve the performance of the multilateral system, making it stronger, better and smarter. This assessment is focused on UNWomen's performance in 2023 and 2024 and is being led by Italy and South Korea.

UNWomen is reducing the proportion of staff based in New York by 10% by moving them closer to the field in Nairobi and Bonn. The aim is to move staff closer to the women and girls they serve, and the organization also expects related cost savings. These include an average annual saving against each position in NY of $52k/year in Bonn and $32k/year in Nairobi, and an average $10,000 savings per position in relation to rent, security and common services costs.

The resolution is still being finalized but there appears to be general agreement against a revision of the staff regulations to incorporate gender-inclusive language. The resolution is also expected to provide guidance on the question of paid internships at the UN Secretariat.

Recent years have seen increasing unpredictability in when member states pay their assessed funding requirements, and a growth in non-payment. As the SG highlights, arrears reached new highs in four of the past six years, and were significantly higher than the liquidity reserves, effectively wiping out such reserves and leaving the Secretariat vulnerable to liquidity shortages. Rigidity in budget management procedures further compounds this vulnerability, with member states only approving some of the measures for increased flexibility that the SG has proposed in recent years.