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New York City, U.S.—— The UN’s budget has not grown, but the challenges it faces are growing.
When the annual high-level convention meeting is held in New York City on Tuesday, the 193-member organization will work to unite an international community hit by the deadly coronavirus pandemic and an uneven global economic recovery, which will only exacerbate the gap between the two. Disagreement. Some and none in the world.
The UN has faced challenges in recent years: the Security Council has reached a deadlock over Syria, an unprecedented refugee and migrant crisis, an unchecked global health crisis-especially in developing countries-and serious government-managed funds reduce. Former US President Donald Trump.
As the need for more financial assistance, vaccines, and unified and guiding voices to free all countries from the danger of a pandemic continues to grow, COVID-19 continues to ravage both developed and developing countries.
The coronavirus will surely become the main pillar of the message when the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivers his annual speech on Tuesday. He is expected to call on UN member states to strengthen unity, and call on developed countries that have the means and vaccines to provide more help to less affluent countries.
Last October, when Present The UN’s 2021 budget is close to US$3 billion—a net decrease of 2.8% from 2020—Guterres warned member states that the organization is required to do more with less and is working hard to fulfill its mission.
Guterres said: “We are forced to do business not based on a strategic direction, but based on the availability of cash, which will undermine the execution of the mission.”
In the 11 months that followed, the demands on the United Nations did not decrease, but under the new administration of US President Joe Biden, it received some budget relief.
A friendlier U.S. government
Since the establishment of the United Nations on the rubble of World War II in 1945, the United States has been its largest donor country.
In 2019, the United States contributed 22% of the UN’s core budget and 25% of the peacekeeping budget, providing this superpower, host country, and permanent members of the Security Council with a certain degree of organizational influence.
Former US President Trump overturned this decades-long symbiotic relationship by shutting down funding channels. His government draws funds from the core budgets of the United Nations and its agencies, including the United Nations Population Fund (on abortion), the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (providing aid to Palestinians), and the World Health Organization (during the global pandemic).
Developing economies and emerging economies have loudly criticized Trump for his stinginess. In October last year, Guyana, on behalf of the Group of 77 and China, criticized the United States for withholding UN funds.
The representative of Guyana said: “It is unacceptable for this member state to stick to its privileges while slowly bankrupting the organization and the multilateral system.”
But after President Biden took office, the United States once again opened up its cash sources, paid membership dues and issued new commitments to the United Nations.
“The previous government [Biden] P. Terrence Hopmann, professor of international relations at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, told Al Jazeera.
International flags fly outside the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, U.S. [Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg]Richard Stoll, a professor of political science at Rice University’s Baker Institute of Public Policy, told Al Jazeera that Biden could seize the opportunity to promote a fairer sharing of financial burdens.
“One can argue that since the United States now owns 15% of the world’s GDP [gross domestic product] Its contribution to the United Nations should be small, while other countries-such as China-should increase their efforts,” Stoll told Al Jazeera.
China’s donations account for 12% of the UN’s core budget, second only to the United States. Under the leadership of President Xi Jinping, its influence in the organization will continue to grow, according to Jeffrey Feltman, who served as the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs of the United Nations from 2012 to 2018.
In recent years, China has expanded its influence in the development and peace and security of the United Nations, and has a healthy financial situation, and can continue to expand its international influence. It is already one of the five permanent members of the Security Council with a very important veto power, and it is not afraid to use it on issues from Syria to Sudan.
Hopman of Johns Hopkins University told Al Jazeera: “China has many opportunities to stand up, just like any other big country, it has its own interests to promote.” He added that the United Nations can and should be used as a tool. Dealing with tensions between major superpowers such as the United States, China, and Russia.
Greater challenges, but not greater resources
From pandemics to climate change to achieving its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within its ambitious timetable, the United Nations is staring at some huge challenges.
The Sustainable Development Goals are the development blueprint of the United Nations. It contains 17 goals, focusing on issues such as eradicating poverty, promoting education, improving maternal health, and achieving gender equality.
The desk in the United Nations General Assembly Hall is still empty because the speaker speaks remotely at the SDG Moment event at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, USA [John Angelillo/Reuters]The 193 member states of the United Nations pledged to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, but in less than 9 years and a world-changing pandemic, ambitions must have been suppressed.
Stoll of Rice University told Al Jazeera: “I think the challenge is that many countries are still struggling to deal with the impact of COVID and may be reluctant to commit to achieving these goals until they feel their problems are under control.”
The United Nations continues to warn about the global economic recovery and the uneven supply of vaccines.It recently warn Due to the coronavirus crisis, developing countries may reduce poverty by USD 8 trillion in the next ten years.
“Before things get better, I can imagine [developing countries] Will be reluctant to make promises to the United Nations-especially money,” Stoll added.
However, although some countries may tighten their pockets, the demand for United Nations assistance and services will only grow.The percentage of the world’s population suffering from moderate or severe food insecurity has increased from 22.6% in 2014 to 30.4% in 2020. According to UNICEF.
Special political mission
Nearly a quarter of the UN’s core budget is used to fund special political missions that are set up in countries experiencing or emerging from conflict. The missions of these missions are to monitor democratic elections and peace negotiations, and help strengthen multilateral institutions.
According to statistics, there are currently 39 such tasks, accounting for 24% of this year’s resources or US$707 million. A sort of.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres talking with colleagues near the United Nations headquarters in New York City, U.S. [Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg]UN special political missions can be found in countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, and Colombia.
Although Member States regard special political missions as an important part of the UN’s global peace and security pillar, some Member States criticize the significant increase in these missions in recent years and occupy too much of the UN’s regular budget.
More and more people are asking for a separate budget for special political missions—unlike the budget of the Department of Peace Operations—which will clearly show how the funds are used, rather than putting them under the broader United Nations budget.
At the UN budget meeting last year, the representative of Cuba stated that the member states that are members of the Security Council and have the authority to establish these missions should be responsible for funding them.
“It is illogical to fund these tasks through the regular budget,” Anna Silva Rodríguez Abascal told the committee. “[It] It accounts for 24% of the resources allocated to it, an increase of two percentage points compared to the 2020 budget. “
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