Table of Contents
Why is the UN80 Initiative necessary?
Eighty years after its founding, the UN system remains the world’s indispensable platform for peace, development, humanitarian action and human rights. In 2024, it connected 8 billion people to global goals, improved over 400 million lives with development support, and assisted nearly 120 million people in emergencies. Yet today’s global challenges — from conflicts and climate shocks to widening inequalities and declining trust in institutions — are growing in scale, complexity and interconnectedness.
At the same time, the UN system faces growing resource constraints. Between 2024 and 2026, the UN system’s overall resource base is projected to shrink by approximately USD 16 billion, a reduction of nearly 25 per cent. This decline is equivalent to half of its humanitarian assistance delivered in 2024, 70 per cent of its development assistance, or the budget of several large UN system entities combined.
Against this backdrop of rising global needs and shrinking resources, incremental adjustments are no longer sufficient. In this complex and urgent context, the UN80 Initiative is the United Nations’ proactive response.
What are the goals of the initiative?
The UN80 Initiative is a transformation and modernization agenda to build a UN system that is:
● Simpler: Reducing duplication, fragmentation and administrative burden
● More coherent: Operating as one system across peace and security, development, humanitarian action and human rights
● More efficient: Sharing back-offices, data and technology enablers across the system
● More accountable: Strengthening systemwide accountability for impact
● Future-ready: Digitally enabled, data-driven and fit for 21st-century challenges
UN80 is a system-wide initiative. While the UN Secretariat represents roughly one quarter of total UN system resources, the majority of delivery sits with funds, programmes and specialized agencies. The initiative therefore proposes changes impacting the whole UN system — from how mandates are created, to how they are delivered and reviewed.
How does the UN80 Initiative work?
The initiative brings all efforts under a single framework, based on three reinforcing workstreams.
Workstream 1: Efficiency in the UN Secretariat
This workstream focuses on optimizing UN Secretariat work. As part of the revised estimates for the 2026 Programme Budget and the Support Account, the Secretary-General proposed initial efficiency measures, including:
● Consolidation of administrative platforms
● Relocations to lower-cost duty stations
● A range of optimizations across all pillars
These measures complement system-wide optimization efforts in workstream 3, especially for sharing and consolidating administrative services and enablers. Virtually all proposals were approved by the General Assembly in December 2025.
Workstream 2: Mandate Implementation Review
Mandates express the collective will of Member States. Over time, however, gaps have emerged across the mandate lifecycle: how mandates are created, delivered and reviewed. The Secretary-General’s Report on the Mandate Implementation Review (July 2025) identified challenges including:
● Limited visibility across the landscape of mandate and mandating organs
● Proliferation of meetings and reports
● Duplication of effort and unclear division of labour in mandate delivery
● Misaligned funding modalities and heavy earmarking of resources
● Weak mandate review mechanisms and accountability for results
To address these issues, the UN80 Initiative promotes better design, stronger coordination and impact-focused
review. An Informal Ad Hoc Working Group of the General Assembly, co-chaired by Jamaica and New Zealand, is advancing proposals, with an outcome envisaged for March 2026.
Workstream 3: Structural and Programmatic Realignments
Workstream 3 examines how the UN system itself can be better aligned to deliver results collectively. In September 2025, the Secretary-General issued “Shifting Paradigms: United to Deliver”, outlining possible structural and programmatic realignments to reduce fragmentation, strengthen delivery within and across pillars, and improve regional and country-level coherence.
Proposals include:
● Peace and security: streamlined leadership structures, consolidated peacebuilding support, and more networked peace operations that systematically leverage existing UN system expertise
● Humanitarian action: a New Humanitarian Compact to simplify coordination, integrate supply chains and services, improve data capacity, and further clarify roles
● Sustainable development: mergers of UN system entities, reconfigured UN country teams, a reset of regional setups, and new shared knowledge hubs
● Human rights: establishment of a Human Rights Group to better align UN system efforts
All reforms are supported by system-wide enablers, including shared back-office services at global and country level, a Data Commons initiative, a Technology Accelerator Platform, joint training and research, and strengthened pooled funding.
All actions are brought together under a single UN80 Initiative Action Plan, ensuring coherence across the UN system.
What is the UN80 Initiative Action Plan?
The UN80 Action Plan brings the Secretary-General’s major UN80 reform proposals into a single, coherent structure to streamline efforts that will make the UN system deliver better.
The plan does not introduce new proposals but sets out how the UN system intends to advance the ones already on the table: 87 actions, grouped into 31 work packages across 3 workstreams, stretching from peace operations, development, human rights and humanitarian response to technology, shared services and institutional mergers.
In short, the UN80 Initiative Action Plan is:
- A coordination framework: showing how different actions across all UN80 workstreams are organized coherently across the UN system.
- A planning and accountability tool: aligning responsibilities and actions across the system.
- A transparency measure: showing how the UN system will operationalize actions outlined in the Secretary-General’s reports.
What the Action Plan is not:
- A policy proposal: it does not introduce new recommendations or substitute for intergovernmental decisions
- An exhaustive blueprint: it captures the first step of action planning; implementation will depend on Member State guidance.
Who is leading the initiative?
The UN80 initiative was launched by Secretary-General António Guterres in March 2025 as the UN marked its 80th anniversary.
In resolution 79/318 , the General Assembly welcomed the Secretary-General’s efforts and looked forward to receiving the relevant proposals.
In decision , the Assembly established an informal ad hoc working group, open to all Member States and observers, to consider the Secretary-General’s proposals under Workstream 2 of the UN80 Initiative and to identify principles and follow-up actions to improve the creation, delivery and review of mandates.
Proposals under the three Workstreams of the UN80 Initiative are brought together under a single UN80 Initiative Action Plan, ensuring coherence across the UN system.
Implementation is guided by:
● A Secretary-General-chaired Steering Committee, uniting UN system leaders monthly
● A system-wide Task Force chair by Under-Secretary-General for Policy Guy Ryder driving delivery with weekly check-ins
● Regular engagement of leaders with the General Assembly and other stakeholders.
Progress is tracked through a public UN80 Initiative Actions Dashboard for transparency and accountability.
Is this just a cost-cutting exercise?
UN80 is an opportunity for transformation.
The goal is to make the UN stronger, more coherent, and better able to deliver on its mandates. This is a strategic opportunity to align the Organization with today’s priorities and tomorrow’s challenges, reduce unnecessary complexity, and make sure our limited resources are used where they have the greatest impact.
While some roles and structures may evolve, the focus is on smarter, more effective delivery, and ensuring that programmatic impact is protected and strengthened.
Will this solve the UN’s financial crisis?
No — UN80 is not designed to solve the UN’s financial challenges, which are multi-faceted, although its workstream related to efficiencies can help mitigate their impact.
It’s important to distinguish between different aspects of the UN’s financial challenges:
- The UN Secretariat is facing a severe liquidity crisis for its regular budget operations. This has been a recurring issue over the years (going back historically even to the 1950s) but has become increasingly more acute in recent years, including for peacekeeping operations over the last 3 years. It is caused by delays and shortfalls in the collection of “assessed contributions” from Member States. These mandatory dues finance the operations of the Secretariat. When they are not paid in full or on time, it directly affects the UN’s ability to function and to fully implement the budget approved by Member States. Several proposals to address this problem are under the active consideration of the General Assembly. Such proposals are distinct from the UN80 Initiative.
- Agencies, funds and programmes across the wider UN system are experiencing reductions in voluntary funding, which are essential for humanitarian, development, and other specialized work. This has led to shrinking budgets which may affect the essential services that we are delivering to the people that we serve.
While UN80 won’t resolve these challenges on its own, making the Organization more cost-effective and reducing rigidities will allow the Organization to be more agile in the face of these challenges.
But for the UN Secretariat (and other UN system organizations that rely on assessed contributions from Member States), the solution is clear: Member States must meet their financial obligations — in full and on time.
How will this affect the people the UN serves?
In countries where the United Nations operates, whether through humanitarian, peacekeeping, development activities or otherwise, the UN80 Initiative strives for support that is more coordinated, more responsive, and more effective.
UN80 promotes a more integrated UN presence. It encourages agencies to align their efforts around shared priorities, reducing duplication and improving delivery. For people experiencing crisis, food insecurity, or the aftermath of conflict, this can mean faster aid, clearer responses, and more lasting impact.
Even for those who have never received direct UN support, the Organization plays a vital role in shaping the world around them. From public health and peacebuilding to human rights and sustainable development, the UN’s work contributes to global stability and progress. It remains a unique platform for international cooperation, rooted in the commitment to prevent conflict and uphold dignity.
Today, the UN assists more than 130 million displaced people, provides food to over 120 million, delivers vaccines to nearly half of the world’s children, and supports peacekeeping, elections, climate action, and human rights around the world.
At the same time, the world is becoming more complex. Crises are multiplying, geopolitical tensions are growing, and financial pressures are increasing. UN80 is the UN’s response to this evolving landscape. It is about improving how the Organization works, strengthening coordination, and ensuring it can keep delivering where it matters most.
This is not about doing less. It is about staying effective, trusted, and ready to meet both today’s challenges and those of the future.
What does success look like for the UN80 Initiative?
By the end of 2026, the goal is to advance towards:
● Clearer, more coherent mandates
● Reduced intergovernmental workload
● Stronger accountability for results
● Better alignment between mandates, resources and delivery structures
● A digitally enabled UN system ready to support Member States in the 21st century.
Above all, the UN80 Initiative is about a UN system that is capable, credible and effective — delivering maximum impact for people and planet, even in an era of unprecedented change.
How will civil society be meaningfully included in the UN80 Initiative going forward?
Civil society is a core partner in UN80. We are working to ensure that engagement is structured, predictable, and continuous.
Key elements of the engagement approach include:
Quarterly briefings with the USG for Policy, Guy Ryder
Each relevant work package will design its own civil society engagement opportunities (briefings, written inputs, meetings, etc.) and share information regularly to ensure transparency.
- Engagement mechanisms will correspond to the relevant work packages’ timelines and deliverables.
Civil society focal points will be designated for each relevant work package.
A consolidated timeline of engagement opportunities will be available and constantly updated on the UN80 website.
Does the UN80 Initiative weaken or deprioritize human rights or gender equality?
No. The UN80 Initiative does not weaken either area.
On human rights: The initiative proposes a UN System Human Rights Group, led by the High Commissioner, to improve systemwide coordination, reduce duplication, and strengthen the UN’s overall human rights architecture. UN leadership has emphasized that this mechanism is meant to reinforce mainstreaming and coherence, not to replace, absorb, or undermine existing independent human rights mandates.
On gender equality: Gender equality mandates remain fully protected. The Secretary?General commissioned a thorough assessment to examine whether, in today’s more contested and resource?constrained environment, structural integration between UN Women and UNFPA could strengthen coherence, political weight, and delivery for women and girls. The assessment’s purpose is to evaluate whether a merger would enhance the UN’s ability to deliver end?to?end results on gender equality and women’s rights, not to diminish or deprioritize them.
In short, neither human rights nor gender equality is being downgraded; the initiative aims to make both areas more coordinated, resilient, and effective.
How will the UN continue supporting disability inclusion under resource constraints?
The UN remains fully committed to its core values and human rights principle of inclusion, and to implementing the UN Disability Inclusion Strategy. The independent evaluation concluded that the Strategy has been a catalyst for disability inclusion albeit progress has been uneven across the UN. To build on the momentum of the Strategy and to respond to the evaluation recommendations, the revision, UN Disability Inclusion Strategy 2.0, is being developed and aims to address gaps, improve impact and ensure sustainability of disability inclusion across the UN system.
What is the progress with the Mandate Implementation Review and how will civil society input be reflected?
As of 13 March, the Co?Chairs of the Informal Ad Hoc Working Group on the Mandate Implementation Review have issued a second version of the draft resolution (Rev.1, available here), followed by Member State and civil society consultations and informal briefings. Negotiations are ongoing with adoption of a draft resolution by the end of March. The Co-Facilitators have held engagements with civil society organizations and think tanks and academia in New York and Geneva, with calls for civil society inputs informing their drafts.
What does the Regional Reset mean and how will civil society be involved?
The Regional Reset builds on progress made with regional reforms of the UN development system, and proposals are being developed to advance a reset of regional capacities across pillars, with actionable recommendations to the Secretary-General. The vision is a coherent regional setup, with capacities clustered in and around Regional Economic Commissions, moving from scattered capacities to an integrated regional system that better supports global mandates, region-wide strategies and country-level action.
Civil society can contribute through joint initiatives at global, regional, and national levels, building on past best practices and strong partner interest. The UN will co?develop and participate in events, discussions, and initiatives proposed by civil society, with Resident Coordinators or Regional Economic Commissions facilitating consultations where relevant so that national perspectives inform global discussions.
How does the UN plan to engage civil society in decision-making beyond consultations?
The UN80 Civil Society Engagement Plan focuses on strengthening meaningful civil society participation, reflecting proposals from a wide range of stakeholders. Civil society engagement is a standing item in monthly Steering Committee meetings, and all Work Packages are committed to creating meaningful engagement and information sharing opportunities. The overall approach prioritizes systemic and impactful engagement that remains flexible and responsive to the fast?moving UN80 process.
How is the UN addressing fragmented access to online training courses to improve accessibility for civil society organizations?
Work package 17 of the UN80 Initiative is focused precisely on resetting training and research activities. UN University and UNITAR are leading these efforts to establish a coordinated capacity within the UN system, aiming to create a centralized access point for digital education. This initiative is designed to overcome the current fragmentation and ensure that civil society and others can easily find and access relevant training products all in one place.