This section increases the focus further, examining country-level spending in crisis-affected contexts.73 It also explores how resources are allocated across functions, enabling a humanitarian–development–peace nexus perspective.
Crisis-affected countries/areas face severe and persistent development challenges. Often, such crises centre around deep-seated weaknesses, such as limited institutional capacity, poverty or exposure to overlapping shocks (e.g. armed conflict, natural disasters or commodity price volatility arising from a heavy reliance on exports).74 Given that immediate humanitarian needs and long-term structural vulnerabilities cannot be addressed in isolation, ensuring integrated, sustained country-level support is a pre-requisite in these circumstances. A total of 21 countries/areas have been classified ‘crisis-affected’ for more than a decade, underscoring the enduring nature of these complex settings and their structural vulnerabilities.75
Figure 35 illustrates UN operational activities and peace operations expenses in countries/areas classified as crisis-affected in 2024. Whereas the equivalent figure in previous editions of this report only depicted countries/areas with relevant expenses of more than US$ 100 million or US$ 200 million, this edition includes all 39 crisis-affected countries/areas, with UN expenses disaggregated according to their humanitarian, development and peace components. Total UN expenses in these 39 countries amounted to US$ 32.0 billion, accounting for nearly half the organisation’s 2024 annual expenses (48%). As expected, humanitarian assistance was the dominant component of UN expenses in these crisis-affected countries (58%).
UN development, humanitarian, and peace operations expenses by crisis-affected country, 2024 (US$ billion)
(*) Kosovo as per Security Council resolution 1244.
Source: Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB) and Report of the Secretary-General (A/81/75/Add.1-E/2026/61/Add.1).
Instability and violence can spread swiftly throughout a region, unconstrained by political borders. Displaced people may seek safety and support in neighbouring states, with profound economic and geopolitical consequences for the countries involved. In 2024, more than 420 million people in fragile economies were living on less than US$ 3 a day – the World Bank’s definition of extreme poverty. The Southern and Eastern Africa region hosted the highest number of people in need (85 million), with the crisis in Sudan accounting for 35% of this regional total. In West and Central Africa, 57 million people were in need as of 2024. Here, the most significant increase occurred in Chad, driven by the continued influx of displaced people fleeing Sudan.76
South Sudan recorded the highest overall 2024 UN expenses among the 39 crisis-affected countries. Within the US$ 2.7 billion it received, peace operations constituted the highest component (48%), followed by humanitarian assistance (42%). Afghanistan – which had received the largest volume of UN expenses in 2023 – followed close behind on US$ 2.6 billion, 67% of which was humanitarian assistance. Next were the Democratic Republic of the Congo (US$ 2.4 billion), Somalia (US$ 2.1 billion) and Lebanon ($2.0 billion), reflecting the scale and persistence of the complex, long-term crises at play. Altogether, the top five recipients accounted for 37% of the UN’s combined humanitarian, development and peace expenses in crisis-affected countries in 2024 (US$ 11.8 billion in total).
Peacekeeping missions continue to operate with shrinking resources. Amid already volatile environments, new threats, including drone warfare, challenge their capacity to protect civilians and help countries/areas move towards lasting peace. As a recent UN News article observes: ‘Peacekeeping missions have faced “significant financial challenges” … prompting contingency measures that are already affecting performance on the ground … budget cuts are constraining missions’ ability to carry out core mandates – including protecting civilians and ensuring the safety of UN personnel’.77
Peace expenses account for a major share of overall UN expenses in countries/areas where UN-DPO is hosting an ongoing UN peacekeeping operation. In 2024, peace operation expenses accounted for 79% of UN humanitarian, development and peace expenses in Central African Republic, 74% in Mali, 48% in South Sudan, 46% in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and 42% in Somalia. Collectively, these five countries accounted for 80% of all peace- and security-related expenses across the 39 crisis-affected countries.
The closure of peacekeeping missions can significantly alter the composition and scale of UN expenses in affected countries. Here, Mali provides a notable example. The withdrawal of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali was completed at the end of 2023, causing peace-related expenses to decline from US$ 1.4 billion that year to US$ 1.2 billion in 2024, with a further rapid decline in expenses foreseen for 2025. Thus, the aggregate level and distribution of UN expenses across crisis-affected countries will almost certainly evolve as further peacekeeping missions are reconfigured or closed.
Humanitarian assistance dominated UN spending in most crisis-affected contexts, accounting for 93% of total UN spending in the State of Palestine, 85% in Sudan and 84% in the Syrian Arab Republic. Although development assistance was generally much lower than humanitarian assistance in crisis-affected countries, there were exceptions to this trend. For instance, Guinea-Bissau, Gambia and Liberia – classified as crisis-affected due to their receipt of funding from the Peacebuilding Fund – all received a high percentage of development expenses.