By Anjali Sharma
UNITED NATIONS – World body on Wednesday has approved a $3.45 billion regular budget for the UN for 2026, after weeks of intensive negotiations and one of the Organization’s most important reform initiatives, UN80.
The budget approved by the 193-member General Assembly authorized $3.45 billion for the coming year, covering the Organization’s three core pillars of work: peace and security, sustainable development, and human rights.
The approved budget is $200 million higher than the Secretary-General’s proposal prepared under the UN80 reform initiative, it is about 7% lower than the approved 2025 budget.
The regular budget financed the UN’s core activities, including political affairs, international justice and law, regional cooperation for development, human rights, humanitarian affairs and public information.
It is separate from the UN peacekeeping budget, which operates on a 1 July to 30 June fiscal cycle, while the regular budget follows the calendar year.
UN Controller Chandramouli Ramanathan addressed delegates as the Fifth Committee the Assembly’s main administrative and budget body wrapped up negotiations praised the Committee for steering a complex and compressed process to a timely conclusion.
“It has been a year of challenges,” he said, noting that the Secretariat had been tasked with assembling an entire budget in less than six weeks, producing hundreds of tables and responding to thousands of questions from oversight bodies and Member States.
He underscored that despite often arduous negotiations, the Committee had once again reached agreement by consensus, a hallmark of the budgetary process.
“That is something remarkable that you should not underestimate,” he told delegates.
He warned that the adoption of the budget marks the beginning not the end of a demanding implementation phase.
Chandramouli Ramanathan said as of 1 January 2026, 2,900 positions will be abolished, while over 1,000 staff separations have been finalized, required careful management to ensure affected personnel continue to receive salaries and entitlements during the transition.
Ramanathan welcomed what he described as a record level of potential advance payments by Member States toward the 2026 budget and appealed for continued prompt payment of assessed contributions.
