Grace Levin
Acting Minister Counsellor for UN Management and Reform
New York, New York
May 14, 2021
AS DELIVERED
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to thank Ms. Catherine Pollard, Under-Secretary-General, DMSPC, for her presentation last week on the financial situation of the UN and her updates today. I would also like to thank the Controller, Mr. Chandru Ramanathan, for his work managing the organization’s liquidity.
My delegation believes that the United Nations can be an indispensable force for advancing peace, prosperity, and justice, and therefore it must have sufficient financial support from Member States. The United States takes pride in being the largest contributor to both the assessed and voluntary budgets of the United Nations system. In total, the U.S. contributes more than double the amount of the next largest contributor annually.
Last week, Under-Secretary-General Pollard shared with us the financial situation of the United Nations. She informed us that the UN collected $1 billion in contributions for the regular budget in April alone. This is more than the UN has collected for the regular budget in one month’s time since at least 2016, and perhaps this the most the UN has ever collected in a single month for the regular budget. The financial situation of the UN is thus much improved compared to last year. Many Member States collectively contributed to this record collection, but it would not have been possible to achieve this without the U.S. contribution of over $300 million in the first four months of the year.
As we’ve noted many times before, due to the timing of the U.S. fiscal year, the U.S. pays its regular budget assessment in the last quarter of the year. This year we plan to pay our regular budget assessment in full in the last quarter of the year.
Mr. Chairman, the United States is committed to fulfilling our financial obligations to the United Nations. We do so not merely to improve the finances and liquidity of the organization, but to ensure a more effective and efficient organization.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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