The UN General Assembly (UNGA) Friday approved around $3.122 billion to fund the global organisation’s regular budget for 2022.
The 2022 budget is slightly lower than the previous year. The UN member states, on December 31 last year, approved an annual regular budget of $3.231 billion for the global body.
The budget is the third to be presented to the member states for their approval after the organisation shifted to annual budget cycles in 2019, having run on biennial budgets since 1974.
The regular budget covers UN activities across many areas, including political affairs, international justice and law, regional cooperation for development, human rights and humanitarian affairs, and public information.
The intergovernmental organsation has a separate budget for its peacekeeping operations. For the fiscal year ending on June 30, 2022, the peacekeeping budget is $6.38 billion.
Assessments of the budget obligations for the UN member states are based on economic factors such as gross national income. Till December 22, 144 member states paid their regular budget assessments in full.
The US, China and Japan will remain the top three contributors to the UN budget for the 2022-2024 period in the plan adopted by the UNGA Friday.
The US will account for 22 per cent of the general budget for the upcoming three-year period, the upper limit for a member economy, followed by China at 15.25 per cent and Japan at 8.03 per cent.
The share for China rose from 12.01 per cent in the current period.
The UNGA body dealing with UN administrative and budgetary matters – the Fifth Committee – on October 13 began its line-by-line consideration of a proposed $3.122 billion regular budget for the global body in 2022, before recosting, which put an accent on development and human rights in the final decade of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, drew lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on the organisation’s work.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres introduced the budget, saying it represents a net reduction of 2.8 per cent compared to the 2021 budget, despite additional activities and mandates.
Source: United News of Bangladesh