ESCAP Resources

About the UN budget

The total UN budget, including that of ESCAP, approved by the General Assembly for the biennium 2010-2011 is US$ 5.4 billion. Member States contribute to this budget based on an assessed rate of contributions.

As well as the budget from assessed contributions, also referred to as the regular budget (RB), the UN receives voluntary contributions from countries, specialized agencies and other donors, also called extrabudgetary resources (XB).

How is ESCAP funded?

From the US$ 5.4 billion UN regular budget, for 2010-2011 ESCAP is allocated US$ 98.3 million from Section 18 to finance its mandated activities in the field of economic and social development in the Asia-Pacific region. In addition, for the biennium ESCAP expects to receive approximately US$ 30.2 million extrabudgetary contributions, which are mainly utilize to finance technical cooperation projects aimed to increase the capacity of its member countries to achieve the international agreed development goals, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration.

Technical cooperation resources

ESCAP technical cooperation activities are funded from both the regular budget of the United Nations and extrabudgetary resources. The regular budget comprises (a) the Regular Programme of Technical Cooperation (section 22) and (b) the United Nations Development Account (section 35). Extrabudgetary resources are voluntary contributions provided by individual Governments, entities of the United Nations system and other intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Such contributions can be in cash (funds-in-trust) or assistance in kind, including the secondment of experts on a non-reimbursable loan basis and the provision of host facilities and equipment.

The total cash contributions received by ESCAP in 2010 for technical cooperation from the regular budget and voluntary sources amounted to approximately $16.7 million. Donor countries contributed $8 million of the total funds received in 2010, of which approximately 73 per cent was received from developing member countries. The United Nations, from sources including sections 22 and 35 and funding from other United Nations entities, contributed $5.9 million, representing 35.5 per cent of the total funds received in 2010. Other intergovernmental organizations and NGOs contributed $2.8 million of the total funds received in 2010. The largest contributor under this category was the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.