UN to reduce its staffs and cut budget

United Nations on 27 December 2013 ordered to cut staff and budget under the pressure from United States and other austerity-stricken industrialized powers. This is the first time, since 1945 United Nations has taken the decision to cut the staff and budget. The decision was taken because the governments of members suffer from financial crisis.

After protracted negotiations, the 193-nation Assembly agreed to cut 221 staff or 2 percent at the UN headquarters and ordered a one-year pay freeze for the more than 10000 workers in New York. A two-year freeze on benefits allowance was also mentioned. The staff cut is part of the 2014-2015 UN budgets.

The members of UN have also voted to cut its budget to 5.5 billion dollars for 2014-15, which is 50 million dollars below the final spending in past two years.

United States provides about 22 percent of UN budget. Apart from US, other countries like France, Britain, Germany and Japan are among the top contributors in the budget of UN. The general budget does not include UN peacekeeping activities that cost more than 7.5 billion dollars a year or to operate several major UN agencies, such as UNICEF and the World Food Programme, which are funded by voluntary contributions.

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