Funding Multilateralism: Strengthening the United Nations Through Assessed Contributions

The United Nations (UN) heavily relies on voluntary contributions, made at the discretion of individual member states, while assessed contributions – i.e. membership fees – make up a relatively small part of most UN budgets. In the context of major geopolitical shifts, voluntary funding becomes increasingly unpredictable and in danger of falling prey to divisions among UN membership. This Policy Brief argues that the G20 – comprising key representatives from six continents and the most important contributors to the UN regular budget – is uniquely positioned to strengthen the operative abilities and the strategic capacities of the UN system through are invigoration of member states’ assessed contributions. As having a well-functioning and responsive UN is, ultimately, in the self-interest of the G20 countries, a G20 proposal for UN funding reform should include: (1) raising assessed contribution levels to at least 50 percent of overall budgets to ensure that the key functions of the UN do not heavily rely on discretionary funds; (2) expanding the use of assessed contributions to the 13 UN entities that receive only voluntary forms of member state funding; (3) tweaking the formula used to calculate assessed contributions to give due consideration to additional indicators that reflect how member states relate to major global challenges; and (4) reinforcing institutional mechanisms for penalising late payments to keep up the payment morale in a highly volatile geopolitical context.