View of the entrance to the UN headquarters in New York. The General Assembly approved the UN regular budget for 2026 in the amount of $3.45 billion UN
After several weeks of intense negotiations and the launch of one of the most important reforms – the UN 80 initiative – the General Assembly approved the UN regular budget for 2026 in the amount of $3.45 billion.
The budget, approved by the UN’s 193 member states on Tuesday, covers three key areas of the Organization’s work: peace and security, sustainable development and human rights.
While the approved budget is about $200 million higher than the Secretary-General’s UN 80 reform proposal, it is about seven percent lower than the 2025 budget.
The UN budget finances the core activities of the Organization, including its political and humanitarian aspects, international justice and law, regional development cooperation, human rights and public information dissemination.
The regular budget is separate from the UN peacekeeping budget, which operates on a financial cycle from 1 July to 30 June, while the regular budget follows the calendar year.
Difficult Consensus
Speaking to delegates at the conclusion of negotiations of the Fifth Committee, the Assembly’s main administrative and budgetary body, UN Comptroller General Chandramouli Ramanathan praised the Committee for steering a complex and tense budget deliberation process to a timely conclusion.
“It has been a testing year,” said he, noting that the Secretariat had been tasked with preparing the entire budget in less than six weeks.
Ramanathan stressed that despite the often difficult negotiations, the Committee was able to reach consensus. “This is truly remarkable and you should not underestimate it,” he told delegates.
60~h2>Challenges Ahead
The Comptroller General warned that the passage of the budget marks the beginning, not the end, of a difficult phase of its implementation.
As of January 1, 2026, he noted, 2,900 positions will be eliminated. More than a thousand employee layoffs have already been officially formalized. This requires careful work and significant administrative effort to ensure that the salaries and benefits of affected staff are paid during the transition period.
Chandramouli Ramanathan also welcomed the “record level of potential Member State advances” towards the 2026 budget and called for continued timely payment of assessed contributions.