WFWPI, Other NGOs Propose Measures to Solve UN Financial Woes — Women's Federation For World Peace International

A consortium of global women’s organizations has proposed ways for the UN to address its long-standing liquidity crisis before it could worsen into a humanitarian crisis worldwide.

Women’s Federation for World Peace International, the NGO Committee on the Status of Women Geneva and other cosignatory partners, including the NGO Committee on the Status of Women Vienna wrote a statement to the Secretary-general in August 2025.

The CSO Consortium recommended strengthening the tripartite collaboration between the UN, Member States, and civil society to build resilience in times of crisis.

“We recommend that the Human Rights Council establish a new multi-stakeholder entity that amplifies the local voice, strengthens inter-agency linkages, and fosters genuine partnerships. We cannot allow financial neglect to dismantle decades of progress, nor can we stand by while the world’s most vulnerable are silenced. Timely funding is the lifeline of justice, stability, and peace. Funding delays stall investigations, treaty reviews, missions, and complaint mechanisms, potentially costing lives,” the statement said.

WFWPI UN Geneva director and president of the Committee on the Status of Women – Geneva Carolyn Handschin said that the substantial reduction of the humanitarian workforce and operational budgets is an opportunity to evaluate and listen to more innovative solutions that have long-term impact on the UN's liquidity problem.

Handschin, who has over 25 years of NGO leadership through WFWPI, suggested that in the short-term, “there could be a secretariat between the UN and the Civil Society organizations in order to have an efficient multilateral and multidisciplinary way of solving budgetary and organizational problems.”

The CSO Consortium said that the UN's fiscal situation reflects its ability to be the defender of human rights. “Beyond operational setbacks, the crisis threatens the UN’s credibility as a neutral defender of human rights and risks reducing its founding principles to empty promises. The United Nations at 80 should not only be seen as a milestone but also as a turning point; a true moment for reflection and bold transformation. The world needs global governance.”

The NGOs said that the UN’s financial crisis will affect its ability to safeguard vulnerable nations. “We all recognize that the UN human rights system is not just a safeguard for the vulnerable, but a safeguard for all nations. When it weakens, no country is immune.”

The CSO Consortium said that “Without resources, guaranteeing prioritization, women’s leadership in peace processes, governance, and community decision-making are weakened or lost. Such setbacks are not temporary; they reverse decades of hard-won gains,” the CSO Consortium said.

Delayed or zero funding could mean that shelters for survivors of gender-based violence would close; legal aid programs for women would disappear; girls are pulled from school or forced into child marriages; and maternal health services are cut, increasing maternal mortality and other preventable deaths.

The Consortium noted that the UN’s fiscal crisis exists because of

• Delayed or withheld payments of assessed contributions.

• Rising demands due to global crises that far exceed current funding structures.

• Reduced trust and confidence in the United Nations as a whole.

• Concerns over equality within the United Nations (such as Security Council reform) leading to reduced trust and confidence in the United Nations as a whole.

• Mismanagement and overspending.

The Consortium statement further warned that the unabated crisis also undermines commitments under the Beijing Platform for Action, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and so importantly, the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) and UN Security Council Resolution 1325.

Handschin underscored the need to step back now and listen to civil society to have a broader perspective of resolving the fiscal crisis in such a way that it is beneficial for all people