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UNA-Canada Fact Sheets > Funding and Financial Crisis at the UN
In spite of the immeasurable political constraints and the great expectations placed upon the United Nations, it succeeds in touching the lives of people throughout the world in a constructive and positive fashion. The great variety of projects sponsored by the UN’s numerous agencies and intergovernmental bodies reflect the commitment of staff members to international peace, justice, and sustainable development for all member states. Increasingly, however, funding is proving to be a great constraint affecting the UN’s ability to act both efficiently and appropriately. While many Canadians may believe that the UN is a fat bureaucracy with unlimited funds at its disposal, its budget is, in fact, less than that of New York City's Police, Fire, and Corrections Departments. The number of UN employees in New York is less than the number of municipal workers in the City of Winnipeg. The United Nations receives operating funds from its member states, and from voluntary contributions. The UN Secretary-General sends a proposed budget to the General Assembly for approval once every two years. For 1996-97, the UN budget is $2.6 billion.1 This budget is not likely to increase in the near future because it is contingent upon the political will of its contributing members. The UN has been in a precarious financial situation for several years, because many members have not paid their dues on time or in full. As of November 1996, member states owed the United Nations a total of $700 million for its regular budget and another $1.8 billion for its peacekeeping budget. Not even the international war crimes tribunals (for the prosecution of war criminals in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia) were immune to this problem, with $23.8 million of outstanding dues as of July 31, 1996. The United States remained the UN’s largest debtor (followed by Japan and the Russian Federation), owing $1.6 billion in past and present dues as of February 1, 1997. By that date, only thirty-one member states had paid their dues in full. Canada prides itself on being one of the few industrialized countries which pays its assessments in full each year. Meanwhile, because many states fail to pay their dues, the United Nations owed troop-contributing countries, including Canada, around $700 million by the end of 1996. This is a serious problem, as approximately twenty countries have recently indicated that late payments are an obstacle to their participation in ongoing or future peacekeeping operations. The amount that member states are assessed is based on ability to pay. Canada, for instance, was assessed 3.11 per cent of the UN regular budget for 1997. This translates into C$44.9 million which was paid in full in January 1997. Developing countries such as Burkina Faso are assessed at 0.01 per cent—the minimum assessment—of the UN budget. In addition to the basic assessment, members are asked to contribute to the costs for peacekeeping operations. In 1996, Canada contributed C$94.9 million to UN peacekeeping efforts—an amount roughly equivalent to its 3.1 per cent assessment. Voluntary contributions from a variety of sources, including governments and individuals, keep many UN activities running. Much of the work of organizations such as the United Nations Development Programme, the World Food Programme, UNICEF, and the UN Population Fund is funded through such contributions. 1 All figures are in US dollars unless otherwise indicated.
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