UN Finances: What are the Costs and Who Pays the Bills?

Abstract

If the credibility of the UN had depended solely on its ability to pay its way, it would long ago have been dismissed as a loser. From its earliest days, it has protested publicly about fighting off what, in normal terms if applied to individuals or business corporations, would be described as bankruptcy. Yet it has survived because of the overall political will of its members to have it remain in business — whatever its shortfalls as an intergovernmental organization (IGO). Reform has been debated, considered and, with varying degrees of success, enacted about a dozen times since the UN was founded. But, by the nature of being the sum of its current membership of 188 states it has always been a reactive organization. This ability to adapt rather than initiate changes has been the hallmark of its survival, as much in its financial system as elsewhere.