United Nations, United States  (AFP)—The United Nations on Wednesday unveiled an initiative to operate more efficiently as it grapples with funding shortages made worse by US President Donald Trump’s nationalist, inward-looking policies.

Launching a program coinciding with the organization’s 80th anniversary, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the drive was necessary as resources had been “shrinking across the board.”

“For example, for at least the past seven years, the United Nations has faced a liquidity crisis because not all member states pay in full, and many also do not pay on time,” he added.

The United States, for instance, is the largest UN contributor with a quota that amounts to 22 percent of the regular budget. As of late January, it had accumulated arrears of $1.5 billion, a UN spokesman said.

And in 2024 China, the second-largest contributor with a 20-percent quota, did not pay its dues until late December.

Added to these difficulties is the US announcement of an end to almost all foreign humanitarian aid, much of which had financed UN programs and agencies.

There is worry that Trump will reduce the US contribution to the UN budget, as he did during his first term.

The new program, called UN 80, is not a response to the new US pressure — or at least not entirely, a senior UN official said, insisting that an audit was necessary regardless.

“Current circumstances add a degree of emergency to the process,” the official said.

– ‘Life and death’ –

When asked if UN 80 would be an analog to DOGE — the so-called US Department of Government Efficiency headed by billionaire Elon Musk that has laid off thousands of US government employees to slash federal spending — Guterres dismissed the comparison.

“We are talking about completely different processes, methodologies and objectives,” Guterres said, adding that it was a “continuation” and “intensification” of ongoing processes.

He gave an example of the changes being made, with some services provided by UNICEF and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) in New York being transferred to Kenya, where operating costs are lower.

Guterres said: “These are times of intense uncertainty and unpredictability. And yet certain truths have never been more clear: the United Nations has never been more needed.

“Budgets at the United Nations are not just numbers on a balance sheet. They are a matter of life and death for millions around the world,” he added.

The internal working group created Wednesday will be charged with finding ways to save money and increase efficiency in several areas.

This applies first to the working of the UN secretariat itself, which as of late 2023 employed more than 35,000 people. Hiring has now been frozen.

The efficiency drive will also apply to areas where it is only the member states that can change things.

The new drive will operate by “thoroughly reviewing the implementation of all mandates” assigned through decades of resolutions of the General Assembly, in search of overlap or other waste.

Guterres said the world body also needed “a strategic review of deeper, more structural changes and program realignment in the UN system.”