UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres introduced the proposed programme budget for 2025 to the UN General Assembly’s (UNGA) Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary). “A multiplicity of challenges and… a strong sense of urgency” provide the context for the USD 3.6 billion budget proposal.

In his remarks to the Fifth Committee on 16 October 2024, the Secretary-General highlighted that the budget proposal “reflects in many ways” the priorities set out in the recently adopted Pact for the Future, the Global Digital Compact, and the Declaration on Future Generations. These include “a commitment towards updating and reforming international cooperation to make it more networked, effective, fair and inclusive” and a renewed commitment to promote peace, sustainable development, and human rights.

Excluding Special Political Missions, the proposed 2025 budget includes 10,494 posts (a net increase of 115) and USD 711 million for the continuation of 36 Special Political Missions.

The Secretary-General urged Member States to continue the UN’s investment in development. Proposals for the 2025 budget include that: the UN increase its investment in sustainable development by approximately USD 4.5 million, with the Regular Programme of Technical Cooperation (RPTC) intended as a key recipient; and USD 0.5 million be added for the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) for technical assistance and advice to Member States on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the African Union’s Agenda 2063.

Additional increases are proposed for:

• The Development Account, to expand country-level capacity development support and to broaden the dissemination of the projects’ results to more countries;
• The Office of the Special Adviser on Africa; and
• The Office of the High Representative for Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries, and Small Island Developing States (OHRLLS).

Increases are also envisioned to support the UN’s work on human rights, including USD 8 million for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and to “boost[] support for the unprecedented humanitarian challenges in Gaza,” with USD 3.5 million in additional resources.

Additional increases are intended for advancing peace and security and strengthening capacities in investigation and ethics.

In light of “pathways to new possibilities and opportunities towards securing a peaceful and livable future for everyone on our planet,” opened by the outcome of the Summit of the Future (SoF), the Secretary-General urged Member States to support his 2025 programme budget proposal. He hoped to “end the current trend of declining liquidity,” proposing that the UNGA temporarily suspend the return of credits for 2023 against the 2025 assessment, to make the Organization less vulnerable to “adverse changes in payment patterns of assessed contributions.”

The Fifth Committee began its line-by-line consideration of the proposed budget on 16 October. Discussions will continue over the next several weeks. [UN News Story]