The United Nations on Friday (July 10) warned that at least one million women and girls have lost access to vital support due to significant cuts in foreign aid spending since January 2025.
The UN Women agency condemned the collapse of women’s organizations at a time when needs are sharply increasing. U.S. President Donald Trump cut foreign aid after taking office last year, while other key donor countries have also “tightened their belts.”
As a result, according to Sophia Kaltorp, head of UN Women’s humanitarian department, who spoke to journalists in Geneva, “at least one million women and girls affected by conflicts and crises have lost access to critically important services and support.” She added that this number is “just the tip of the iceberg,” calling the findings of the new report “deeply alarming.”
Speaking from Stockholm, Kaltorp emphasized that women’s organizations at risk of closure are “working on the front lines of the world’s most complex and dangerous crises,” particularly in Afghanistan, the Gaza Strip, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, and Yemen. “Every dollar taken from women’s organizations is a dollar taken from those who have survived conflict-related sexual violence, from displaced mothers, girls forced to leave school, and communities struggling to survive,” she said.
Growing needs and risk of organizational closure
UN Women reported that armed conflicts have reached their highest level since World War II, and about 120 million women and girls need humanitarian aid and protection. The agency’s report, based on responses from 855 women’s and human rights organizations in 52 crisis-affected countries, showed that 84 percent of groups recorded an increase in demand for their services since January 2025.
“Nearly nine out of ten state that they can no longer meet the current level of needs,” the agency noted, while “two out of five surveyed organizations expect to close, temporarily or permanently, within the next year.” To keep organizations afloat, leaders and staff are sacrificing their own work and well-being. Sixty-five percent of women’s organizations reported that staff are working without pay to continue providing services, while nearly half reported an increase in burnout among employees.
Kaltorp warned that “the number of cases of conflict-related sexual violence doubled in 2025,” just as the systems designed to protect victims were collapsing. UN Women found that 86 percent of surveyed women’s organizations reported an increase in gender-based violence in the communities they serve.
Consequences for women’s rights and society
The consequences can be devastating: “A woman seeking shelter from violence may arrive at the doors of a shelter that has closed; a pregnant woman may walk for hours to a medical clinic; or mothers may be denied food for their children,” UN Women noted. The agency emphasized that the impact goes beyond the paralysis of humanitarian aid.
“The dismantling of women’s organizations is not happening in a vacuum, but against the backdrop of a global rollback of women’s and girls’ rights,” the statement said. It noted that one in five organizations have already suspended work on developing women’s leadership and gender equality, while more than half reported a decrease in women’s participation in community leadership and local decision-making.
Combined with cuts in funding for women’s organizations, the erosion of women’s rights is causing terrible social losses, Kaltorp said. About 90 percent of women’s organizations surveyed for the Friday report noted an increase in poverty among the women they serve. Meanwhile, eight out of ten recorded an increase in the number of girls dropping out of school, and about 70 percent noted an increase in the number of forced marriages. “The lack of funding deepens inequality and division, which comes at an incredibly high cost,” she concluded.
Source: Channel NewsAsia
