As the United Nations lays off staff, can the world still come together to make a difference?
- Written by The Conversation
With United Nations bodies laying off staff following United States funding cuts, it’s fair to ask if the multilateral system – where countries work together towards common goals – is still functioning.
Many UN agencies – including the World Heath Organization, World Food Programme, UNHCR and UNICEF are cutting more than 20% of staff. UNAids has let go 85% of its head office staff.
The scale of the budget crisis has prompted headlines about the UN’s decline, with some arguing multilateralism is dead. As one commentator puts it, “multilateralism is shown to be dead or dying. The key institutions […] are no longer functioning or are in sleep mode”.
Multilateralism encompasses global cooperation through organisations such as the United Nations, World Trade Organization and INTERPOL, as well as frameworks such as the Paris Agreement. The UN is its flagship: a place where states, large and small, engage in joint decision-making, negotiate rules and tackle issues that no one country can resolve alone.
Multilateralism is, by its nature, slow, complex and often messy. But in a divided world, it remains one of the few means of fostering cooperation across ideological, economic and geopolitical lines.
The good news is that even after the budget shortfall became a top-line issue, the UN has continued its work. As well as concluding two new international agreements on health and development, it has continued to progress two recent conventions on cybercrime and the high seas.
They may not make the news, but each of these four agreements illustrates the importance of quiet, persistent multilateral cooperation.
Protecting the world from future pandemics
No one who has lived through the COVID pandemic would doubt the importance of a pandemic agreement. Negotiations at the World Health Organization had stalled multiple times due to disagreements over intellectual property and access to resources.
Yet in May this year, negotiators agreed on the core elements of the treaty – including commitments to share data, boost funding for emergency response and avoid export bans on critical medical supplies. Despite the absence of US leadership in the final stages, countries managed to broker a deal that many see as essential for future pandemic preparedness.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said:
The Agreement is a victory for public health, science and multilateral action. It will ensure we, collectively, can better protect the world from future pandemic threats.
Improving lives in developing countries
The other new international agreement is the Seville Commitment, a global plan for scaling up investment in sustainable development presented at the International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) in June in Seville.
Despite the withdrawal of the US delegation in the final stage, more than 150 countries reached an agreement and practical actions related to debt, tax and development finance, which are now being implemented.
Countries such as Zambia, Mexico, Nepal, and Norway played leading roles – showing that middle and smaller powers can drive outcomes even when major players step back.
Governing spaces outside borders
Two other multilateral agreements have progressed significantly this year. After years of debate over its scope and principles, the UN Convention against Cybercrime was adopted in late 2024. While the US and several other countries opted out over concerns about human rights protections, more than 140 countries supported the agreement. It is set to open for signature this October in Hanoi – and will come into effect when adopted by 40 countries – offering a long-awaited framework for cross-border cooperation on cybercrime.
And very soon, a new High Seas Treaty will come into effect. After decades of discussion, an agreement was adopted in 2023 to protect ocean biodiversity beyond national jurisdictions. It sets up marine protected areas, provides guidelines for environmental impact assessments and establishes frameworks for sharing benefits from marine genetic resources.
The deal survived years of political wrangling and was ultimately sealed by consensus. Only nine more countries need to ratify for it to come into force, which will likely happen this year, whether or not the Trump administration decides to support it.
Multilateralism is still possible
These examples show a form of pragmatic multilateralism – not flashy, often slow, but still delivering outcomes. As the prime minister of Spain Pedro Sánchez put it in Seville:
Today we are not just closing a conference. Today we are blazing a trail. And we do so by putting on record […] that the world is still capable of coming together to stand up for what really matters.
In this new era, expecting less doesn’t mean giving up. Without dominant powers at the helm, multilateral processes are messier and more fragile – but they are not dead. International cooperation remains both possible and necessary.
Multilateralism without the US has its limitations, but it still holds the potential for tangible, incremental progress on global challenges. In a fragmented world, the spirit of shared responsibility may be multilateralism’s best hope.
