UN: Funding cuts leave one million women without aid

According to a UN Women report published on Friday, at least one million women and girls have lost access to life-saving support over the last 18 months due to global aid cuts. Although organizations serving women and girls have seen an increase in demand for services in the past year, 90 percent say they cannot meet needs on the ground as funding has dried up.

The United States, previously the world’s largest aid donor, slashed foreign assistance by more than 50 percent after President Donald Trump’s administration took office in January 2025, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Other major donors, including Germany, France and the United Kingdom, have also cut donations, largely due to domestic burdens and pressure to increase defense spending.

“The women’s organizations at risk of being shut down are on the frontlines of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises,” said Sofia Calltorp, UN Women’s chief of humanitarian action, in a statement. “Every dollar withdrawn from women’s organizations is a dollar withdrawn from survivors of conflict-related sexual violence, displaced mothers, girls forced from school, and communities struggling to survive.”

The UN report surveyed 855 women’s organizations across 52 vulnerable countries, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti and Afghanistan. It found that 40 percent face temporary or permanent shutdowns within the next year due to low funding. Sixty percent said they were reaching fewer women and girls since last January despite increased needs. Half of the organizations surveyed said they have had to put people on waiting lists or turned women and girls away. Nearly all said women they served were getting poorer and girls were dropping out of school.

Even as conflict-related sexual violence doubled in the past year, 62 percent of organizations report no longer having safe spaces and reducing gender-based violence services.