UN Women: One Million Women and Girls Lose Access to Life-Saving Aid

Impact in Crisis Areas

According to UN Women, the cuts primarily affect women's organizations working in the epicenters of humanitarian crises. Calltorp emphasized that many of the organizations threatened with closure were working "at the front lines in the most complex and dangerous crises in the world," such as in Afghanistan, the Gaza Strip, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, and Yemen.

Calltorp warned of the concrete consequences for the affected populations. "Every dollar taken away from women's organizations is a dollar taken away from survivors of conflict-related sexual violence, displaced mothers, girls pushed out of school, and communities struggling to survive," she said.

The report details that aid services combating gender-based violence, sexual and reproductive health programs, and initiatives for the education of girls are particularly affected by the funding cuts. Local women's organizations, which had taken on a large share of direct care in recent years, have reported mass layoffs and program stoppages.

Demands to Donor Countries

According to UN figures, the gaps now amount to several hundred million dollars that could not be refinanced in the current year alone. The United Nations had already pointed to a worsening funding crisis in the humanitarian sector in earlier reports.

With the current report, UN Women is intensifying pressure on donor states to reinstate their commitments. In addition to Western industrialized countries such as the USA, Germany, and the United Kingdom, other major donors such as Japan have also significantly reduced their contributions in some cases. UN Women appeals to governments not to make women and girls a sideshow of international aid.

Long-Term Consequences Feared

The organization announced that it would follow up with concrete country reports in the coming weeks to make the extent of the care gaps more visible. In parallel, discussions are underway with remaining donors and foundations to secure at least bridge financing for the most severely affected programs.

Humanitarian experts see the figures as confirmation of a trend observed for years: when state development aid shrinks, the services targeting women and girls are the first to come under pressure. The long-term consequences – rising maternal and infant mortality, more school dropouts, an increase in gender-based violence – are, according to several aid organizations, only visible with a delay.

The UN Women report comes at a time when several crisis regions are simultaneously reporting peak levels of need. In Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Gaza Strip, the number of internally displaced people continues to rise while aid corridors are simultaneously being restricted. Local women's organizations are often considered the last remaining points of contact in these contexts for survivors of sexual violence and for women without access to basic medical care.