UN-Habitat’s is mainly supported financially by voluntary contributions from governments and inter-governmental donors. Other partners, such as local authorities, the private sector, and other United Nations bodies and multilateral organizations, provide funding for specific programmes. With very limited core resources from the UN system, UN-Habitat depends largely on donor contributions. UN-Habitat’s main sources of funding are:

• Regular budget allocations, which are approved by the United Nations General Assembly Member States. These funds originate from the United Nations main budget. An allocation of USD $10.7 million was received in 2012 (7% of UN-Habitat’s total budget).
• General purpose contributions, which are non-earmarked voluntary contributions from governments. These funds are allocated according to priorities approved by UN-Habitat’s Governing Council. In 2012, UN-Habitat received a total of USD $10.9 million of general purpose contributions (7% of UN-Habitat’s total budget).
• Special purpose contributions, which are earmarked voluntary contributions from governments, foundations, the private sector, UN bodies, and other donors, for the implementation of specific activities outlined in the work programme approved by the Governing Council. These contributions go either towards the UN-Habitat Foundation for policy and normative work, or towards technical cooperation for project execution in individual countries. In 2012, UN-Habitat received USD $36.2 million (23% of UN-Habitat’s total budget) for UN-Habitat Foundation activities and USD $128.5 million (63% of UN-Habitat’s total budget) for technical cooperation at country-level.