UN eyes major overhaul amid funding crisis

2/5/2025 7:28

The United Nations is considering a massive overhaul that would merge major departments and shift resources across the globe, according to an internal memo prepared by senior officials tasked with reforming the world body.



The high-level review comes as U.N. agencies scramble to cope with the fallout from U.S. foreign aid cuts under President Donald Trump that have gutted humanitarian agencies.



The six-page document, marked "strictly confidential" and reviewed by Reuters, contains a list of what it terms "suggestions" that would consolidate dozens of U.N. agencies into four primary departments: peace and security, humanitarian affairs, sustainable development, and human rights.



Under one option, for example, operational aspects of the World Food Programme, the U.N. children's agency, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.N. refugee agency would be merged into a single humanitarian entity, it said.



The memo contains a range of suggestions, some large, some small, some speculative, which, if all adopted, would represent the most sweeping reforms in decades.