UN reform: Internal memo considers cutting 20% ​​of current staff

"The Secretary-General has set an ambitious target of achieving a significant reduction (between 15 and 20 percent) in the regular budget by 2026, including a 20 percent reduction in Secretariat posts," wrote UN Financial Controller Chandramouli Ramanathan in a message sent this week to dozens of department heads.

The UN's regular budget for 2025 is $3.7 billion. The Secretariat, one of the main organs responsible for many tasks assigned by the General Assembly and the Security Council, employed some 35,000 people at the end of 2023, primarily in New York, but also in Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi.

Towards a profound restructuring of the organization?

As part of the "UN80" initiative aimed at improving the organization's efficiency in a difficult budgetary context, its Secretary-General Antonio Guterres recently warned that "painful" changes were coming, including in terms of staffing, citing a figure of 20%.

The memo, dated May 27, asks all department heads to draw up their respective lists of positions to be eliminated by June 13, focusing on overlaps, duplications, or "non-critical" functions. "I count on your cooperation in this collective effort," writes Chandramouli Ramanathan, acknowledging a "tight timeline."

The staff reductions, if approved by the General Assembly, which will have to adopt the 2026 budget, will come into effect on January 1, 2026, for already vacant positions, later and in accordance with internal rules for occupied positions.

What are the consequences for UN agencies?

The memo specifies that agencies such as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and UN Women, which receive funding from the regular UN budget, will receive separate instructions.

The UN has been facing a chronic liquidity crisis for years, with some member states failing to pay their dues in full and others failing to pay on time.

Thus, the United States, the largest contributor to the UN regular budget (at 22% according to the quota set by the General Assembly), was accumulating arrears of $1.5 billion at the end of January, according to a UN spokesperson. And in 2024, China, the second largest contributor (20%), did not pay its due until the end of December.