UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary General António Guterres has warned member states that the world body is facing an “imminent financial collapse” as unpaid annual dues, rigid financial rules and dwindling liquidity push the organisation towards “a moment of truth”.

Dawn has obtained a copy of a letter the UN chief sent this week to all permanent representatives to the United Nations, in which he cautions that unless member states either pay their assessed contributions in full and on time or agree to fundamentally overhaul the UN’s financial rules, the organisation may soon be unable to function.

In the unusually stark message, dated Jan 28, the secretary general said the UN’s current financial trajectory is “untenable”, leaving the organisation “exposed to structural risk and forcing a stark choice” between reform and collapse”.

He noted that while the UN has weathered periods of unpaid contributions in the past, the present situation “is categorically different” because decisions not to honour assessed contributions have now been formally announced.

Mr Guterres highlighted what he called a “Kafkaesque” paradox at the heart of the UN’s financial system: under existing rules, the organisation is required to return unspent budget credits to member states even when those funds were never collected due to non-payment of dues. “In other words,” he wrote, “we are trapped in a Kafkaesque cycle; expected to give back cash that does not exist.”

According to the letter, the UN ended 2025 with a record $1.568 billion in outstanding dues — more than double the previous year — while collections covered only 76.7 per cent of assessed contributions.

Despite spending reductions, liquidity reserves were nearly exhausted, sharply increasing the risk of cash shortages.

Published in Dawn, February 1st, 2026