What is the purpose of UN’s Fifth Committee?

• UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres presented a sharply reduced $3.238 billion regular budget for 2026 on October 17.

• He warned that the UN faces a “race to bankruptcy” unless Member States pay their dues in full and on time.

• The revised proposal marks a significant drop from his original ask for next year of $3.715 billion and is 15.1 per cent below the 2025 approved appropriation.

• The regular budget, funded through mandatory assessed contributions from Member States, covers the core programmes and operations of the UN Secretariat.

• In addition, the UN has a budget specific to peacekeeping operations on a July 1 to June 30 cycle – while the regular budget operates according to the calendar year.

• Speaking to the Fifth Committee of the General Assembly, Guterres described a deeply precarious outlook, with high arrears, delayed contributions and the “return of credits” threatening to wipe out liquidity and undermine core operations.

• The revised budget also reduces staffing from the original 2026 proposal funding 13,809 posts (10,667 regular posts plus 3,142 Special Political Mission posts) to 11,594 posts — an 18.8 per cent cut compared with 2025.

• These reductions target larger departments and administrative functions, while protecting programmes that directly serve Member States – particularly Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries, small island developing States, and advocacy for Africa’s development.

• High arrears at the end of last year, totalling $760 million, coupled with a requirement to return $300 million in credits to Member States at the start of 2026, removes nearly 10 per cent of the budget from available cash.

• The UN entered 2025 with a $135 million deficit and by the end of September had collected only 66.2 per cent of the year’s assessments, down from 78.1 per cent at the same point in 2024.

• As of that date, only 136 of the 193 Member States had paid their assessments in full. Several contributors, including the United States, China, Russia and Mexico had yet to complete their payments.

What is the Fifth Committee?

• The Fifth Committee is the General Assembly’s main Administrative and Budgetary Committee, where all financial and programme matters concerning the UN system are discussed.

• Every year, it considers and approves the organisation’s budget.

Main committees of General Assembly are: 

• First Committee (Disarmament & International Security)

• Second Committee (Economic & Financial)

• Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian & Cultural)

• Fourth Committee (Special Political & Decolonisation)

• Fifth Committee (Administrative & Budgetary)

• Sixth Committee (Legal).

Where does the UN get its money from?

• The UN gets its money basically from all the countries. There are 193 Member States. 

• The UN regular budget funds the core administrative costs of the organisation, including the UN General Assembly, Security Council, Secretariat, International Court of Justice, special political missions, and human rights entities. 

• The regular budget is adopted by the Assembly and covers one calendar year (January 1 to December 31). 

• In addition, the UN maintains a distinct budget for peacekeeping operations, with the fiscal cycle July 1 to June 30.

• Most Assembly decisions related to the budget are adopted by consensus. 

• When budget votes occur (which is rare) decisions are made by a two-thirds majority of members present and voting, with each country having one vote. 

• The General Assembly determines a regular budget scale of assessments every three years based on a country’s capacity to pay. 

• The amount paid by Member States is based on a complex formula that includes the size of each country’s economy. Other elements include the country’s external debt, income per capita, and level of development. 

• The amounts range from a high of 22 per cent of the budget to 0.001 per cent, paid by the least developed countries.

What happens if a country doesn’t pay its UN dues?

If the amount that a country owes is equal to what they were assessed to pay for the previous two years, they lose their vote in the UN General Assembly. They don’t get that vote back unless the General Assembly makes a special decision, or they pay enough to get below the two-year threshold, so they try to avoid owing that much.