Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) delegates today began reviewing the revised financial implications of the Secretary-General’s plan to draw down 510 personnel from the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) over the course of 2025, with the bulk of reductions set for year-end.
To ease the Organization’s chronic cash crisis, the United Nations senior management official today presented the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) with a set of targeted measures that go beyond reduced services, hiring freezes and other spending restrictions.
Noting the approach of the International Day to Combat Islamophobia on 15 March, Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) delegates today began reviewing the proposed 2025 budget of $870,000 to support the mandate of a Special Envoy to Combat Islamophobia, including the creation of professional posts within the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) to assist its High Representative, who is recommended to double as the Special Envoy.
Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) delegates today reviewed the United Nations’ ongoing efforts to strengthen its capability to deliver mandates during disruptive events, such as pandemics, terrorist attacks and severe weather events.
Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) delegates today urged the Secretariat to ramp up efforts to boost managerial accountability and internal controls, emphasizing the tone-setting role of top leaders in fostering a more effective United Nations.
Stressing that the Organization’s key asset is its staff, many delegates of the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today emphasized the pressure that the ongoing liquidity crisis is having on efforts to rejuvenate the Organization and attract and retain talent from all parts of the world.
The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) wrapped up the main part of its seventy-ninth session today by sending the General Assembly a 2025 regular budget of $3.72 billion, about $100 million more than the $3.6 billion budget laid out by the Secretary-General in October. In a year of ongoing fiscal constraints, delegates completed the crucial step of approving new scales of assessment — the complex financial mechanism the Secretariat uses to establish the annual contributions of each Member State — for both the regular and peacekeeping budgets.
The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today considered the Secretariat’s request to lay out $8.5 million in 2025 to take tangible steps to carry out the Pact for the Future, a landmark declaration approved by Member States during a high-level session in September.
Delegates at the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today approved a draft decision that would provide nearly $300,000 in 2025 to support a General Assembly text that, if adopted, would request an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on Israel’s obligations as an occupying Power and UN Member State in relation to the presence and activities of the UN, other international organizations and the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Barely two weeks before the start of the Organization’s 2025 budget year, General Assembly President Philemon Yang (Cameroon) urged Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) delegates today to remain flexible and collaborate so as to close their regular session before Christmas.
