UN at 80: Imperfect, Indispensable, and in Urgent Need of Reform

The corner-stone of the UN headquarters building was laid on UN Day at a special open-air General Assembly meeting held on 24 October 1949.

The United Nations turned 80 this year. What should have been a moment of pride and celebration at the high-level session of the UN General Assembly in September 2025 turned instead into an occasion of bitter irony.

At UN Headquarters in New York—fittingly located in the host country that once helped found and champion the organization—the loudest fireworks came not from commemoration but condemnation.

The President of the United States, boasting that he had “ended seven wars in seven months while the UN did nothing,” derided the very purpose of the institution. He dismissed climate change as a hoax, renounced the Sustainable Development Goals, and mocked multilateralism as an obsolete bureaucracy.

That outburst was shocking, but not surprising. The UN has long been an easy target for populist politicians. Yet even as it endures ridicule and neglect, the truth remains: if the UN did not exist, the world would have to create it again.

An Imperfect but Indispensable Institution

The UN’s failures are glaring and often heartbreaking. As the wars in Ukraine and Gaza rage on—each aided and abetted by two Permanent Members of its Security Council—the organization looks helpless, capable only of issuing pleas and providing meager humanitarian aid.

Its impotence is evident in Haiti’s gang warfare, Myanmar’s and Sudan’s military atrocities, Afghanistan’s gender apartheid, and North Korea’s saber-rattling, among others.

It is easy to blame “the UN,” but the real culprits are its Member States—especially the five veto-wielding powers of the Security Council, who too often place narrow national interests above global security. Many others strangle the UN with grand resolutions and lofty mandates but fail to fund them.

Hiding behind sovereignty, many governments oppress their citizens, foster corruption, and neglect global commitments. Meanwhile, the richest nations, capable of lifting millions from poverty, pour trillions of dollars into their militaries.

Still, despite its flaws, humanity cannot afford to abandon the United Nations. The challenges of our time—poverty, climate change, pandemics, terrorism, cybercrime, and mass displacement—are “problems without passports.” No nation, however powerful, can solve them alone. Only collective action through a multilateral system can address the interconnected crises that define the 21st century.

For smaller or poorer nations, the UN amplifies their voice and leverage. Acting together, they can negotiate more fairly with the powerful. For major powers, the UN provides legitimacy and a framework for cooperation that unilateral action can never achieve.

The UN, for all its imperfections, mirrors our world: it reflects both our aspirations and our divisions. Its hypocrisy is our hypocrisy; its failures are our failures. Resolutions without resolve and promises without action are the true reasons for its ineffectiveness.

Yet amid cynicism, it is worth recalling that the UN and its agencies have earned 14 Nobel Peace Prizes—more than any other institution in history. This is a testament to its contributions to peacekeeping, humanitarian relief, human rights, and development.

But it cannot rest on past laurels. If the UN is to remain relevant, it must transform to meet the demands of a rapidly changing world.

Time for Tough Love and Real Reform

UN Secretary-General António Guterres launched the UN@80 Initiative to sharpen the system’s impact and reaffirm its purpose. A recent system-wide Mandate Implementation Review uncovered a staggering reality: over 30% of mandates created since 1990 are still active, and 86% have no sunset clause. Many require the Secretariat and specialized agencies to carry them out “within existing resources”—an impossible task.

Hundreds of overlapping resolutions and reports clog the UN’s machinery, sustained by bureaucratic inertia and Member States’ appetite for endless paperwork. Too many meetings produce too little action.

Technology offers a way out. Artificial intelligence can consolidate and streamline reporting, freeing up resources for real work. Likewise, the frequency of governing board meetings—three times a year for agencies like UNDP, UNICEF, UNFPA, UN Women, and WFP—could be reduced without sacrificing accountability.

Facing financial crisis, political hostility from major donors, and a proliferation of unfunded mandates, the UN must rationalize its structure. Some agencies will have to merge or move operations from costly headquarters in New York and Europe to lower-cost locations in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

UNICEF has already led with its “Future Focus Initiative,” planning to cut headquarters budgets by 25% and relocate 70% of staff to more affordable hubs such as Bangkok, Nairobi, or Istanbul. Such moves reduce expenses, bring the organization closer to the field, and align it better with today’s realities.

At the same time, the UN must leverage the growth of professional capacity in developing countries. Many now produce highly qualified experts who can serve effectively—and at lower cost—than expatriates from the Global North.

UNICEF pioneered this decades ago by hiring national professionals in field offices. Expanding this practice system-wide would save money and strengthen local ownership and credibility.

These are sensible short-term measures, but the real test lies in tackling deep structural reforms that have eluded the UN for decades.

The Hard Reforms: Power, Accountability, and Money

Democratizing the UN

The UN’s mission is to promote peace, democracy, development, and human rights—but its own structure is profoundly undemocratic. The Security Council’s five permanent members hold veto power that can paralyze action even in the face of genocide or aggression.

Changing this requires the consent of those same powers. Only enlightened leadership in those countries and sustained global public pressure can bring reform. Leadership selection must also be transparent and merit-based.

Reviving the “Responsibility to Protect”

Many regimes hide behind sovereignty to oppress citizens. The world agreed at the UN Millennium Summit in 2005 that when governments fail to protect their citizens—or become their tormentors—the international community has a Responsibility to Protect (R2P).

R2P has rarely been applied because powerful nations invoke it selectively. True leadership would uphold R2P universally, without double standards.

Rebalancing Priorities: Disarmament and Development

The UN was founded to prevent war. Yet worldwide military spending now exceeds $2.7 trillion annually—nearly $7.5 billion daily. NATO countries expand defense budgets while social spending shrinks. Redirecting even a fraction of military spending toward the Sustainable Development Goals would secure more peace than all the bombs in the world.

Fixing the UN’s Finances

Money and power often speak louder than moral authority. The US contributes about a quarter of the UN’s regular budget—and uses that leverage to exert disproportionate influence. Other large donors do the same.

In 1985, Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme proposed that no single country should pay more than 10% of the UN budget. Reviving this proposal could depoliticize UN financing and make it more sustainable. The UN should also expand partnerships with philanthropy, foundations, and innovative sources such as taxes on global financial transactions.

A Hopeful Horizon

History rarely moves in straight lines. Progress comes two steps forward, one step back. The post-World War II international order is fraying, and populist nationalism is resurgent. But the movement toward global cooperation is irreversible.

The energy and courage of Generation Z—from Nepal and Bangladesh to Kenya, Indonesia, Morocco, and beyond—offers hope. Young people challenge corruption, inequality, and authoritarianism, seeing themselves as global citizens united by shared aspirations.

Providing these young citizens opportunity and justice instead of inequality and despair can breathe new life into the UN—still imperfect, still indispensable, and still humanity’s best hope for promoting peace and prosperity.

Kul Chandra Gautam, former Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF and Assistant Secretary-General of the UN, is the author of Global Citizen from Gulmi: My Journey from the Hills of Nepal to the Halls of United Nations.