Yasin Gungor
01 June 2026•Update: 01 June 2026
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday outlined four essential actions to keep development on track, warning that the UN system faces an unprecedented funding decline just 1,700 days before the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals deadline.
"We began in 2017 with a clear objective," Guterres told the ECOSOC Operational Activities for Development Segment. "The system was too fragmented when coherence was required. Too internally competitive when collaboration was essential."
He said recent surveys show 94% of governments now assess UN development support as effective. In 2025 alone, UN entities reported over $900 million in efficiency gains through streamlined services and supply chains.
But the secretary-general struck a somber note. "The system is better equipped, but increasingly under-resourced," he said.
Guterres called first for deeper alignment with national priorities, noting that country teams do not always have the capacities needed. He said the UN is assessing potential mergers between UNDP and UNOPS, as well as UNFPA and UN Women.
His second action point involves the UN80 reform initiative, which aims to channel more resources toward development results through joint knowledge hubs and a unified service roadmap.
Third, he urged stable core funding, revealing that the Resident Coordinator system faced a $46 million shortfall in 2025. "I urge member states to reach the 30% core funding target," he said.
Finally, Guterres called on countries to reprioritize spending. "In the context of today's out-of-control military spending," he said, "countries need to reprioritize and spend more on the instruments of peace and development and less on the instruments of destruction and death." He also renewed his call for meaningful debt relief.
