Committee on Contributions

Sessions

The Committee on Contributions meets annually for 3 to 4 weeks, usually in June of each year. The report of the Committee is considered by the General Assembly through the Fifth Committee at the following main session.

Every year the Committee considers requests for exemption under Article 19 of the Charter. The Committee also reviews the status of multi-year payment plans, and elements of the methodology of the scale of assessments.

Eighty-third session

The Committee held its eighty-third session from 5-23 June 2023. The report of the Committee is contained in document A/78/11.

At its eighty-third session, with regard to the methodology for the scale of assessments, the Committee on Contributions:

  1. Recalled and reaffirmed its recommendation that the scale of assessments be based on the most current, comprehensive, reliable, verifiable and comparable data available for gross national income (GNI);
  2. Recommended that the General Assembly encourage the Member States to submit gross national disposable income (GNDI) data to the Statistics Division, which the Ad Hoc Intergovernmental Working Group on the Implementation of the Principle of Capacity to Pay agreed was theoretically the most appropriate measure of capacity to pay;
  3. Welcomed the number of Member States implementing the more recent standards under the 2008 System of National Accounts (SNA) or the 1993 SNA, and expressed support for efforts by the Statistics Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the Secretariat to enhance coordination, advocacy and implementation of SNA and supporting statistics at the national level, with a view to enabling Member States to submit national accounts data on a timely basis with the required scope, detail and quality;
  4. Recommended that the General Assembly call upon Member States to submit the required national accounts questionnaires under the 2008 SNA on a timely basis;
  5. Recommended that conversion rates based on market exchange rates be used for the scale of assessments, except where that would cause excessive fluctuations and distortions in the GNI of some Member States expressed in United States dollars, in which case United Nations operational rates or other appropriate conversion rates should be applied, if so determined, on a case-by-case basis;
  6. Agreed that, once chosen, there were advantages in using the same base period for as long as possible;
  7. Decided to consider further the question of the debt-burden adjustment at future sessions taking into account guidance from the General Assembly;
  8. Agreed that a low per capita income adjustment continued to be an essential element of the scale methodology, which should be based on reliable, verifiable and comparable data;
  9. Agreed that an alternative approach for establishing the low per capita income adjustment threshold could be the world average per capita debt-adjusted GNI;
  10. Agreed that another alternative approach for establishing the low per capita income adjustment threshold could be an inflation-adjusted threshold;
  11. Decided to further consider all elements of the scale methodology at its future sessions taking into account guidance from the General Assembly.

With regard to other suggestions and other possible elements for the scale methodology, the Committee on Contributions:

  1. Agreed that any scheme of limits should not be an element of the scale methodology;
  2. Decided to study further the questions of large scale-to-scale changes and discontinuity in the light of guidance from the General Assembly;
  3. Decided to study further the question of annual recalculation at future sessions in the light of guidance from the General Assembly;
  4. Decided to study further the question of safeguard measures at future sessions and any related new ideas at its next session.

The Committee recalled the past successful implementation of multi-year payment plans by several Member States and reiterated its recommendation that the General Assembly encourage all Member States in arrears under Article 19 of the Charter to consult with the Secretariat to develop and submit practical multi-year payment plans.

The Committee recalled its previous recommendation and strongly urged all Member States in arrears requesting exemption under Article 19 to provide the fullest possible supporting information in support of their claim, including economic, social, political and financial indicators. The Committee also urged those Member States to submit their requests as early as possible in advance of the deadline specified in General Assembly resolution 54/237 C.

The Committee encouraged Member States applying for exemption under Article 19 to make annual payments exceeding current assessments in order to avoid further accumulation of arrears and to work with the Secretariat to develop and submit a multi-year payment plan to resolve their arrears in a reasonable time frame.

With regard to exemptions from the application of Article 19, the Committee recommended that the following Member States be permitted to vote in the General Assembly until the end of its seventy-eighth session: the Comoros, Sao Tome and Principe and Somalia. The Committee authorized its Chair to issue an addendum to the present report if necessary.

Under other matters, the Committee:

  1. Decided to hold its eighty-fourth session from 3 to 28 June 2024.

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