"Bad payers", coronavirus: UN finances in crisis
Speech by US President Donald Trump at the 72nd United Nations General Assembly, New York, September 19, 2017. REUTERS / Brendan McDermid
Text by: Anne Bernas Follow
11 min
The UN is not in good shape, its finances have been at the worst since 2019 and the horizon does not seem to be brightening, because of the coronavirus crisis.
How to explain that the planetary organization does not manage to get out of its difficulties?
Response elements.
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On January 18, seven countries out of the 193 member states lost their right to vote at the United Nations General Assembly, due to excessive debt to the organization.
Iran, hit by US financial sanctions, is expected to pay $ 16.2 million;
Niger, currently a non-permanent member of the Security Council, $ 6,733;
Libya $ 705,391, the Central African Republic $ 29,395, Congo-Brazzaville $ 90,844, South Sudan $ 22,804 and Zimbabwe $ 81,770.
Article 19 of the United Nations Charter in fact provides for a suspension of the right to vote at the General Assembly for any country whose amount of arrears is equal to or greater than the contribution due by it for the past two full years.
In his letter to General Assembly President Volkan Bozkir, Secretary General Antonio Guterres specifies the amounts which, without paying off their total debt, would allow the countries concerned to recover their voting rights in 2021. Three other countries also fall under the of Article 19 of the Charter, but their debt being due to circumstances beyond their control, they benefit from an authorization to continue to vote, specifies Antonio Guterres.
These are the Comoros, Sao Tome and Principe and Somalia.
Niger's mission in New York was to hand over a check for $ 6,733 to the UN on Tuesday.
An "
administrative error
", assured our correspondent in New York, Carrie Nooten, Ambassador Abdou Abarry.
He also confirmed that Niamey would quickly clear its arrears - over $ 55,000.
However, this loss of voting rights had no impact, since no vote has taken place since at the General Meeting.
And in no case does this failure impact the right to vote in the Security Council - on which Niger sits at the moment.
"
A major fault by Guterres
"
"
I understand that the UN, in order to survive in this ocean of problems, is waging a financial fight, but the UN can survive, and Guterres' declaration seems to me to be an absolutely major political mistake
, analyzes Romuald Sciora, researcher associated with the 'Institute of International and Strategic Relations (IRIS) and United Nations specialist.
It is even incredible that he activated this article of the charter
.
This rule was in fact logical when the UN was created in 1945, since the "rich" countries participated in it mainly and it was unthinkable that one of these States would not pay its contribution, except through ill will. .
But 76 years later, many “poor” countries are among the 193 Member States.
"
This is a major mistake because the UN and multilateralism are in crisis,"
continues the researcher, "
the United Nations is no longer considered as a political platform, the UN no longer has any role on the international scene, the Guterres' record is pitiful and all this makes states today turn to regional organizations or deal bilaterally with other states.
Guterres, using Section 19, is only digging the institution's grave.
"
Indeed, most of the states that were “punished” on January 18 risk, given the international crisis, of saying to themselves that they can survive without the United Nations.
These “small” developing countries could very well place themselves on the international scene without going through the UN, which would represent less financial contributions for the already ill-healthed international organization.
“
The United Nations would be neglected once again, but there not by large States but by small ones
, Romuald Sciora analyzes, the very
people who made it possible for the United Nations to still have a political impact on the international scene.
All of this is very dangerous for the credibility of the United Nations.
"
An annual budget of over three billion dollars
It is the Member States that are responsible for the financial health of the United Nations.
At the end of 2019, arrears reached a record high of $ 711 million.
"
We are going to study the removal of several austerity measures
," Antonio Guterres promised at the time.
The UN had thus frozen hiring and reduced its lifestyle.
The year 2019 ended with a cash shortfall of $ 320 million.
Yet this year again, the United Nations is experiencing financial difficulties and its general deficit is several hundred million dollars.
On December 31, the General Assembly adopted a budget of $ 3,231 billion to finance the work of the organization in 2021, against the $ 3,074 million granted in 2020. “
We worked together to build consensus and exercise prudence and flexibility at a critical time in history,
”General Assembly President Volkan Bozkir said at the last plenary session of the year, when the budget was adopted.
Funding for the UN is far from straightforward.
It is the General Assembly which negotiates and approves the financing of the institution, revised every three years.
According to article 17 of the charter of June 26, 1945, the 193 member countries have the obligation to contribute to the financing of the organization.
Compulsory expenses are borne by Member States according to a negotiated distribution, adopted by the General Assembly and revised every three years.
The scale of contribution is based on the payment capacity of each Member State;
the richer a state, the more it pays.
For the period 2019-2021, France is the 6th largest contributor, with a share of 4.43%, i.e., in 2021, a contribution of approximately $ 128 million.
The United States is the top contributor, followed by China, Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom.
The budget which was voted, known as “ordinary”, corresponding to the operating costs linked to the staff as well as to the main organs such as the Security Council, the general secretariat, etc.
Peacekeeping operations (PKOs) are not included in this budget.
Each deployment is subject to a specific budget intended to finance its personnel costs (troops, police personnel and civilian personnel) and its operational expenses (operations and investment).
These budgets are financed by compulsory contributions from Member States, according to a distribution key decided by the General Assembly and revised every three years.
The permanent members of the Security Council, including France, assume a predominant part of this funding because of their particular responsibility in the maintenance of peace.
For the period July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021, the total budgets of the 12 active peacekeeping operations and cross-cutting support expenditures amount to $ 6.7 billion.
France contributes 5.61% to the financing of these operations, or $ 387 million.
In ten years, due to the cessation of certain missions and the reluctance of heads of state such as Vladimir Putin or Donald Trump to participate in certain PKOs, the budget has fallen by more than 17%.
Note that UN funds and programs (UNDP, UNICEF, etc.) as well as UN specialized agencies have their own budget: most of their resources come from voluntary contributions paid by States. members but also by individuals.
The difficult Trump years
Generally speaking, the “big” States pay their contribution.
Except the United States, and that sounds like a double standard.
The United States, unlike the small states punished on January 18, have been among the “deadbeats” for several decades, but the UN Secretary General does not release Article 19 and no one has ever withdrawn their right to vote.
In 2006, to help fund the UN, it was American billionaire Ted Turner who donated $ 1 billion to contribute to the loss of non-payment by the United States.
The United States is the largest financial contributor to the UN.
They pay 22% of the annual operating budget and 25% of the annual budget for peace operations.
They normally have to pay almost 28% of the latter budget, but by a decision of Congress in 2017, they only pay 25%.
Nearly $ 200 million in debt accumulates each year.
During his tenure, Donald Trump made it clear - which many former American presidents did not show so clearly - that he did not like the United Nations or multilateralism.
"
The future does not belong to the globalists, the future belongs to the patriots
", declared the American president before the heads of state gathered in New York for the General Assembly of the United Nations in 2019. Throughout his mandate, the 45th President of the United States has never ceased to vilify and challenge the organization, whether on the climate, on Iranian nuclear power or on the Covid-19 crisis.
As for the 2021 budget, the Trump administration, like the Israeli government, voted against it last December, due to disagreements over Israel and Iran.
The United States is refusing budget funding for an event commemorating the 20th anniversary of the 2001 United Nations Conference Against Racism in Durban, deemed anti-Israel.
With the election of Joe Biden, the UN hopes to reconnect with Washington.
“
This is good news for the UN and the multilateral system, of course
,” explains Romuald Sciora.
If Trump had stayed four more years, the United States could have truly been seen leaving the United Nations.
And Biden has made a strong gesture by appointing diplomacy and multilateralism professional Linda Thomas-Greenfield as ambassador to the UN.
This good news does not mean that everything will change.
This is good news mainly on a symbolic level.
"
Because even if the UN is no longer a major political actor, the organization remains essential through its various humanitarian agencies.
But these have been undermined since the Covid-19 crisis.
The UN put to the test of the Covid crisis
For the UN Secretary General, the Covid-19 pandemic is "
the most difficult crisis the UN has faced since World War II
".
Indeed, the coronavirus pandemic and its corollary a global economic recession risks bringing the poorest states to their knees.
"
This recession is truly a disaster for the UN, for its humanitarian agencies,
" notes the IRIS researcher.
So far, multilateralism has not had the fervor of states, which have mostly contented themselves with managing the crisis at their national level.
The reluctance and loss of confidence in the WHO do not bode well.
By 1948, the Geneva-based organization was 100% state funded.
Today, they only do so at 20%.
The Covid-19 pandemic is worsening the UN's cash flow problems.
The institution must provide additional expenditure to cope with the consequences of the virus, warns Tatiana Valovaya, director general of the United Nations Office at Geneva, in
La Tribune de Genève
.
States' financial support for the United Nations and its bodies must be up to the historic challenge that looms when the pandemic is over.
Faced with this crisis, “
there could be an additional contribution from certain Member States, but that will remain symbolic.
This health disaster risks being a step forward for the decline of the United Nations
, ”concludes Romuald Sciora.
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