UN expenses are reported to the CEB across the four main functional areas: 

1. Development assistance consists of activities that promote long-term sustainable development of programming countries.
2. Humanitarian assistance refers to material or logistical support provided in response to crises (whether natural or man-made) aimed at saving lives, alleviating suffering and maintaining human dignity.
3. Peace operations encompasses the deployment of civilian, police and military personnel to help conflict-affected countries establish conditions for lasting peace.
4. Global agenda and specialised assistance covers activities that either address global and regional challenges not directly linked to the other three functions, or support long-term sustainable development in non-UN programming countries.⁵²

At a functional level, the change in expenses between 2023 and 2024 was primarily driven by a US$ 3.5 billion decline in humanitarian activities. This was partially offset by increases in other areas, including a US$ 650 million rise in development expenses and a US$ 396 million increase in global agenda and specialised assistance. Expenses on peace operations remained broadly stable, experiencing only a marginal increase of US$ 16 million.

Figure 30 presents the distribution of UN system expenses by function for 2024 (left-hand side), as well as how these shares evolved annually from 2018 to 2024 (right-hand side). Of the US$ 66.0 billion in total expenses recorded for 2024, the largest share – 41% – was allocated to humanitarian assistance (US$ 27.2 billion). Development assis tance accounted for 32% (US$ 21.3 billion), followed by global agenda and specialised assistance at 13% (US$ 8.8 billion), and peace operations at 13% (US$ 8.7 billion).

Any reduction in humanitarian assistance due to a decline in crises and humanitarian needs is to be welcomed. Unfortunately, that was not the case in 2024. Instead, UN OCHA’s Global Humanitarian Overview (GHO) highlighted a deepening of needs caused by intense armed conflict and the escalating global climate emergency, noting that the most vulnerable are also the most affected. Armed conflicts remain the primary driver of displacement and humanitarian need. In several contexts, disregard for international humanitarian and human rights law has caused widespread civilian casualties, displacement and infrastructural collapse. Combined with dwindling funding to humanitarian appeals, many vulnerable populations have been left without adequate support.⁵³

The spiralling climate crisis is also of great concern in this context. Soaring global temperatures and a surge in weather-related disasters have placed great strain on  vulnerable people and humanitarian capacities, particularly in terms of the devastating effects on food systems.⁵⁴ In 2024, extreme weather events included floods in Brazil and Libya; drought conditions affecting Zambia and Zimbabwe; and various cyclones and hurricanes (e.g. Hurricane Beryl in the Caribbean) hitting small island developing states.

Against this difficult backdrop, the humanitarian system itself faces a severe, deepening crisis. Donor budgets are becoming increasingly stretched at a time when global needs have reached unprecedented levels. In short, funding has not kept pace with the scale of humanitarian demand. 

In its 2024 Global Report, UNHCR highlighted that the funds it had available for 2024 covered less than half (48%) the agency’s budget requirements. These funds were needed to protect and assist some 129.9 million people worldwide, including refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons (IDPs), returnees and stateless people. This represents an 11% decline compared to 2020, and was the first time available funds relative to budgeted needs had fallen below 50%.⁵⁵

Figure 31 shows the 2015–2025 evolution of total humanitarian requirements, funding for coordinated plans, and the resulting unmet requirements. The international humanitarian system funding needed to implement planned humanitarian response activities worldwide (or ‘total requirements’) decreased in 2024 due to a number of methodological and prioritisation changes. Here, prioritisation relies on vulnerability criteria to ensure humanitarian assistance reaches the people and areas most in need, thereby optimising limited funding.⁵⁶

The humanitarian funding requirements identified by UN OCHA in 2024 amounted to US$ 49.4 billion. Contributions to coordinated humanitarian plans – comprised of humanitarian response plans and flash appeals – fell far short of this, at US$ 24.9 billion. Although global humanitarian requirements have consistently outpaced available funding, the gap has increased since 2020: the average level of unmet requirements for 2015–2019 was US$ 9.6 billion, compared to US$ 22.6 billion for the following five years. In 2025, the funding gap exceeded US$ 29 billion, with funding for coordinated plans tumbling to US$ 16 billion, below 2019 levels.

Figure 31 is not only a reflection of the billions of dollars, gaps and trends involved in humanitarian assistance – behind every statistic is a human being. As the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator put it when discussing the stark numbers shown by the 2024 GHO report: ‘it is about lives. Lives shattered by conflict, the climate crisis and the disintegration of our systems for international solidarity’.⁵⁷

Figure 32 shows the evolution of UN expenses on humanitarian and development assistance between 2015 and 2024. Overall expenses for the UNDS totalled US$ 48.5 billion in 2024, a US$ 2.8 billion decrease on the US$ 51.4 billion recorded in 2023. From 2015 to 2018, expenses for the two types of assistance were broadly comparable, with development assistance slightly higher in 2015 (US$ 15.9 billion) than humanitarian assistance (US$ 14.4 billion). Following that period, humanitarian assistance expenses underwent strong year-on-year increases, peaking at US$ 31.1 billion in 2022. Despite declining thereafter, the US$ 27.2 billion spent in 2024 was still significantly higher (by US$ 5.9 billion) than the equivalent figure for development. The fact that 59% of the humanitarian funding reported to the OCHA Financial Tracking Service in 2024 was directly channelled to UN entities highlights the UN’s central role in providing urgently needed relief.⁵⁸

UN development assistance has followed a gradual upward trajectory since the adoption of the SDGs in September 2015, growing from around US$ 15 billion to a high of US$ 21.3 billion in 2024. Despite this relative stability, SDG financing overall has come under increasing financial strain, reflecting a growing mismatch between rising global needs and insufficient, often volatile, funding. UN development assistance is delivered within a broader financing landscape that includes numerous multilateral and bilateral partners funded via domestic resources, international public finance and private finance.

Against this backdrop, rising debt burdens in developing countries and fiscal constraints in donor countries have limited the expansion of development budgets. Given the  ongoing, rapid growth in financing needs for SDG achievement, the gap between available resources and what is needed to deliver on the 2030 Agenda is widening all the time.