The United Nations (UN) is celebrating its 80th anniversary in 2025. It is in this symbolic context and in the face of an unprecedented budget crisis for the Organization that Secretary-General António Guterres launched, in March 2025, the “UN80 Initiative”. This ambitious initiative aims to profoundly transform the functioning of the organization to make it “more flexible, responsive and resilient” to contemporary challenges, according to the General Assembly’s (GA) Resolution 79/318 of July 18, 2025.

 

The need for rationalization

The reality is indisputable: the UN suffers from organizational complexity and a multiplication of coordination levels that hinder its action and render decision-making particularly complex. This structural inefficiency is no longer sustainable, even less given the 500-million-dollars budget cuts foreseen for 2026, making rationalization of the UN essential to enable it to properly fulfil its mission.

The main goal of the UN80 Initiative is to reach a reduction of the Organization’s budget by at least 15 percent. But this Initiative is not a simple cost-cutting exercise, as it also aims to improve the UN’s operational efficiency by eliminating duplications, optimizing the structure and simplifying a bureaucracy that has become paralyzing to its functioning. It also calls for a reassessment of existing mandates, abandoning obsolete missions and prioritizing relevant actions. This rationalization also seeks to decentralize decision-making in order to make the Organization’s work more straightforward, while encouraging Member States to improve their methods, too often characterized by meetings and debates not leading to any tangible results. If successful, this reform should ultimately improve the allocation of financial aids to populations and the effectiveness of the UN’s work and interventions. However, its success will necessarily depend on the political will of States to prioritize the collective interest.

The need to go beyond rationalization

The UN80 Initiative, although necessary, essentially addresses the UN’s operational deficiencies. However, in a geopolitical context of multiple crises and given the deteriorating confidence in the effectiveness of its institutions, the UN struggles to assert itself as the leading force for multilateralism. It is in this perspective that the work of the “New Foundation of International Institutions” group appears essential, in particular through “Pax Christi International” and its partnership with the international “Article 109” movement on UN institutional reform, all the while supporting the UN80 Initiative and calling for NGOs to be involved in it. The New Foundation group notably worked on 13 Proposals to go further in the UN reform by rethinking the architecture of global governance, with the ultimate goal to restore the Organization’s capacity to prevent and resolve conflicts.

Among these proposals: the suspension of voting rights in the Security Council of a State, including a permanent member, that is party to an armed conflict, by extending the scope of Article 27, paragraph 3 to Chapter VII of the Charter; the expansion of permanent members of the Security Council to include States from the Global South, to better reflect the geopolitical balances of the 21st century and strengthen the democratic legitimacy of the institution; and also, the strengthening the role of the Secretary-General and the General Assembly to prevent Security Council blockages on critical issues of international peace and security.

The 13 proposals for the Reform of International Institutions are available online on Pax Christi International’s website and can be supported by signature in the form of a petition on the National Assembly website. While the rationalization promoted by UN80 therefore appears a necessary first step, a refoundation of international institutions will nevertheless be required in order for multilateralism to regain its relevance and effectiveness in the service of peace. It is to this goal that New Foundation intends to contribute.

Ghislain Le Ray, Alfonso Zardi and Farah Sakr, for the New Foundation for International Institutions group

 

Read the article in French here

Pax Christi International: antennes à l’ UNESCO au Conseil de l’Europe à l’ ONU à Genève – Pax Christi France/ Flandres / Cameroun – Chrétiens de la Méditerranée – MIAMSI – ANASTASIS – Lutte et contemplation – FIUC – Mouvement de la paix – Université Européenne de la Paix – Les Convivialistes – UTOPIA – RJMP en RDC- Greenpeace Afrique

Contact: g.leray@paxchristi.net