The UN80 Initiative: What to Know About the United Nations’ Reform Plan

Secretary-General António Guterres plans to use the launch of the United Nations’ eightieth anniversary commemorations to build momentum for a systemic restructuring of the organization. Dubbed the UN80 Initiative, its goal is to make the United Nations more agile, integrated, and better equipped to respond to contemporary global challenges. These challenges include conflict at a time when disastrous wars in Gaza and Ukraine have spurred growing geopolitical tensions, as well as the intensifying effects of climate change, inequality and emerging threats posed by technological advancement. 

The initiative will be a topic of conversation during the annual UN General Assembly (UNGA) debate, where member states will vote on the proposed UN regular budget for 2026. However, Guterres’s plan—the specifics of which are still being developed—has drawn scrutiny among staff and member states for its proposed budget cuts, suggested consolidations, and potential effect on the organization’s ability to fulfill its mandate in the future. Meanwhile, ongoing tensions with major donors, particularly the United States, have raised concerns about the continuity of their funding commitments and the subsequent impact on the United Nations’ operational capabilities. 

What does the UN80 initiative propose?

Guterres has said UN80’s goals are centered around making the United Nations more cost-effective, accountable to its members, and responsive to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), global crises, and countries’ needs. 

That translates to significant cuts across the board, reports indicate. The Secretariat, the United Nations’ administrative body, is preparing to trim its $3.7 billion budget by 20 percent in 2026. That could result in roughly 6,900 job cuts from the United Nations’ 35,000-person workforce.

One way the reform initiative plans to shrink the budget is by consolidating various UN agencies that have overlapping roles. A UN80 Task Force memo [PDF] obtained in May by Health Policy Watch, a Geneva-based independent outlet, lists more than fifty bulleted suggestions on mergers and reforms. 

Some of these include combining the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change—the organization’s climate arm—with the UN Environment Program, integrating the Joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS into the World Health Organization (WHO), and consolidating several bodies into a single human rights agency. The memo also proposes streamlining the “operational responsibilities” of major humanitarian agencies, listing the World Food Program, UN refugee agency, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and WHO under that purview. 

“The goal here is very much shrinking the United Nations,” Richard Gowan, director of UN and Multilateral Diplomacy at the International Crisis Group, told CFR. “Everyone understands that we’re going through a process which really is about, ultimately, doing less with less.”

The UN80 Task Force is also exploring moving the home bases of various agencies out of hubs, including New York and Geneva, to be closer to their service areas and cut costs.

What’s driving reform efforts?

Guterres’s plan comes as the United Nations contends with several major challenges, primarily:

Declining trust. Global trust in the United Nations has declined as geopolitical tensions have increased. The UN Security Council is a particular source of concern, as its five permanent members—China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, collectively known as the P5—have increasingly used their veto powers, often resulting in inaction during global conflicts or mass atrocities. 

“When the P5 agree, the Security Council possesses almost unlimited potential authority,” Richard Folk and Hans von Sponeck wrote in their book, Liberating the United Nations. But when they disagree, the council “is generally paralyzed.”

This institutional gridlock, coupled with rising tensions among the world’s major powers, has created an especially volatile environment for organizational reform. “The big problem for UN80 is that you can’t imagine a worse time to plan for major reforms than when [the presidents of China, Russia, and the United States] are in office, have vetoes, and are at each other’s throats,” said Michael W. Doyle, former assistant secretary-general and special advisor to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. “It’s a really lethal combination for global cooperation.”

Financial pressures. A UN briefing [PDF] to member states in June projected that in 2025, UN-wide resources are expected to shrink by up to 30 percent compared to 2023—affecting an estimated thirty to sixty million people.

The funding crisis is primarily caused by member states failing to fulfill their financial obligations. As of late April, unpaid contributions to the UN regular budget—which covers core administrative and operational costs, including the General Assembly, the Secretariat, and special political missions—totaled approximately $2.4 billion. The United States owes roughly $1.5 billion in unpaid assessments alone; other major debtors include China, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela. (This doesn’t include unpaid member assessments to peacekeeping operations and international tribunals.)

These growing arrears are worsened by funding cuts from powerful member states. In the United States, historically the United Nations’ largest donor, President Donald Trump has called for a review of all U.S. funding to the organization after criticizing its inability to resolve global conflicts and unequal burden-sharing among wealthy countries. In addition to maintaining the funding freeze on the UN agency for Palestinian refugees that President Joe Biden imposed, Trump has cut hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to UN peacekeeping, UNICEF, the UN Development Program, and other international bodies. The administration has also withdrawn from several UN bodies, including the Human Rights Council and the WHO. 

Administrative issues. Critics argue that the United Nations struggles with bureaucratic bloat and slow decision-making processes. The organization’s large, 193-state membership hardly helps, often creating confusing administrative duplication. UN mandates, which are established and funded by member states, are particularly difficult to implement due to the sheer quantity of them. For example, there are three agencies that focus on food-related issues, said Gowan. Similarly, while the UN refugee agency and migration agency serve distinct mandates, “in operational terms, they’ve got a huge amount of overlap,” he added.

What challenges does UN80 face?

There are concerns that the budget cuts will force UN agencies to deprioritize core programming in critical areas where financial disruptions can be especially damaging, like human rights, gender equality, and development.

“Unless there’s a bit of a turnaround on the budget front… there is going to be human suffering,” Gowan said. “There will be fewer people being fed. There will be fewer people being vaccinated or sheltered by the United Nations if the cuts are not, at least in part, reversed.” 

Even so, the likelihood of the plan’s long-term components coming to pass—such as making structural changes to the UN system—is less probable, given that Guterres’s term is set to end in December 2026 and his successor will likely want to come in with their own vision, Gowan added. 

Countries in the Global South are especially questioning whether the changes could diminish access to the technical assistance, funding, and expertise needed for development efforts, like the SDGs. However, countries that become hosts to agency headquarters could bring substantial economic activity. Guterres has pointed to the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, which already has some UN agency bases, as an example of a city where the United Nations could grow its presence. 

That does not mean that these countries’ long-standing demands for systemic reforms and greater inclusion are more likely to be fulfilled, experts have said. UN80 does not address some of the deep-seated political demands from Global South countries, such as seats on the Security Council or more “equitable, shared, and rules-based global governance and global public goods,” wrote Eghosa E. Osaghae, director-general of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs.

Still, with 120-some countries, they hold critical votes needed to pass resolutions and can make their voices heard. “I wouldn’t rule out the Global South,” Doyle said.

How will the UN80 reform plan be discussed at UNGA?

Experts predict that the central theme at UNGA will likely revolve around a mix of support for the United Nations, paired with a strong push for reform. For world leaders, talking about UN80 in detail is difficult since much of it is still up in the air. “I think people want to reference it, but they don’t really know what they’re referencing because Guterres is still keeping his final big ideas quite close,” Gowan said. The rhetoric from UN members is likely to remain high level, focusing on the importance of existing programs that UN80 would serve, like the SDGs and the Paris Agreement on climate change. 

Guterres will likely lay out some of those big ideas. During UNGA, member states are set to vote on the organization’s 2026 general operating budget—shaped in part by UN80’s proposed reforms. This vote could determine not just the organization’s financial priorities, but also the future direction of UN operations. 

Yet the initiative’s bid to institute major reforms faces significant hurdles. UN80 is not a done deal and Guterres “is going to face some real political opposition” at UNGA, Doyle said. While Guterres could implement some changes before his term ends at the end of next year, the question of whether his successor continues his efforts means the window of opportunity for UN80 reforms is limited.