External publications

Financing the United Nations: status quo, challenges and reform options

Baumann, Max-Otto / Haug, Sebastian
External Publications (2024)

New York: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung

ISBN: 978-3-98628-560-9
Volltext/Full text

The study provides an accessible analysis of how the United Nations, the world’s foremost international organization, is financed. It starts with an overview of the three main funding modalities: assessed contributions, voluntary contributions (core and earmarked), and the umbrella category of “other resources”. The study then explores how financing challenges affect the United Nations as a multilateral system, identifying four areas of concern: the inadequacy of resources across the system, the complexity and fragmentation of financing arrangements, the (mis)fit between financing modalities and the United Nation’s mandated functions, and questions of power and burden-sharing. Based on that, the study advances a set of ideas for improving the financing of the United Nations and its multilateralism.