Updated 16 October 2025.

Financial constraints at the UN are forcing peacekeeping missions to reduce their operations by around 25% - significantly impacting their ability to protect civilians and advance peace in conflict zones around the world. This is the direct result of some Member States not paying their “assessed contributions,” the amount they are required to contribute to the UN’s regular and peacekeeping budgets as part of their membership in the UN. This has created a major gap between the amount approved for peacekeeping missions and the amount available for the current year, adding to the shortfalls already existing from previous years.

 

Shortfall has reached over $2 billion out of a $5.6 billion budget

At the start of the current budget cycle, in July 2025, this shortfall amounted to $2 billion, over 35% of peacekeeping’s $5.6 billion budget. Delayed or non-payment of assessed contributions by the US and other Member States is directly undermining peacekeeping’s ability to deliver the peace and security objectives set for it by the Security Council. The situation has forced UN peacekeeping to make the difficult decisions to significantly reduce expenditures with inevitable consequences for the populations that peacekeepers serve and protect.

“We have no choice but to implement the plans to prevent the financial collapse of the operations, and we obviously profoundly regret having to do this, but we have, again, no other option” said Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix during a briefing to the press on 8 October.

Missions will have to reduce expenditures equal to 15% of their current, year-long budget. Because this must take place in just nine months, and because of the costs associated with repatriating peacekeepers and their equipment, this will require a 25% reduction in police and military personnel and significant numbers of civilian staff. This will impact all areas of our work.

 

 

What does this mean for peace?

Although peacekeepers will continue doing all they can to protect civilians, facilitate humanitarian assistance, and support peace processes, missions will have to delay or cancel some of their work.  

The reduction in personnel means fewer people to help monitor ceasefires and prevent tensions from escalating in places like Lebanon, the Western Sahara, and the Golan Heights. It means fewer people working to stop violent conflict in countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan and the Central African Republic. Fewer uniformed personnel and civilian staff mean fewer patrols, fewer safe spaces and diminished ability to respond to threats and protect civilians. Reduced UN presence risks creating vacuums in fragile areas, emboldening armed actors, and undermining hard-won progress. Fewer field offices and less mobility means missions will struggle to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid.

The reductions also leave the remaining peacekeepers open to greater risk, as smaller, less-resourced contingents are more exposed to threats without the necessary logistical and operational support.

 

 

We must invest in peace

It is an extraordinarily difficult task to end a war, and often harder to ensure that hard-won peace can be sustained. That’s why peacekeeping operations are so vitally important:  they contain conflicts, they help ceasefires to hold, they protect civilians, they help negotiate peace. Often, their presence can mean the difference between life and death.

While we continue to advocate with Member States for the payment of their dues, “UN peacekeepers will continue their hard work: helping to ensure that ceasefires are respected; protecting civilians caught in the line of fire; creating the conditions for lifesaving aid to flow to those in need; and laying the foundations for long-term recovery,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres in remarks to troop and police contributing countries last week. UN peacekeeping also remains committed to continually improving performance and cost effectiveness wherever possible.

But the reality is clear: without predictable, adequate and timely financing, peacekeeping cannot deliver on its Security Council mandates. The UN calls for all Member States to pay their agreed contributions in full and on time.

Together, we must find the will and the resources to invest in peace.

 

Background: How are peacekeeping missions funded?

Every Member State is legally obligated to pay their respective share towards peacekeeping, based on a formula, established by the Member States themselves, that considers factors like a Member State’s relative wealth. The missions’ budgets are approved annually by the UN General Assembly.

These contributions are used to deliver activities like protecting civilians and supporting peace negotiations and are used to pay for equipment and the deployment of peacekeepers. Delays in assessed contributions not only mean missions cannot deliver their important tasks, but also that there are delays in reimbursing the Member States who have contributed the peacekeepers and equipment we are using on the front lines.

Learn more about how UN peacekeeping is financed.