Funding Cuts Leave 1 Million Women Without Critical Aid Access, Says UN Women

Funding cuts leave 1 million women without aid access, says UN Women. At least 1 million women have lost access to humanitarian assistance and other critical support due to budget cuts over the past 18 months, according to UN Women.

The UN agency focused on women said 84% of women's organisations surveyed reported increased needs since January 2025, when the Trump administration in the US, the biggest UN donor, assumed office and began reducing foreign aid.

“Every dollar withdrawn from women's organisations is a dollar withdrawn from survivors of conflict-related sexual violence, displaced mothers, girls forced from school and communities struggling to survive,” said Sofia Calltorp, UN Women's chief of humanitarian action.

Women’s groups struggle amid rising demand

Nearly 90% of the women's groups surveyed said they were unable to meet current levels of need, while one in five said they expected to shut down temporarily or permanently within the next year.

“UN Women has spoken to 855 women's organisations working in 52 countries, who have told us that these women and girls have been turned away due to funding cuts that are dismantling their organisations," Calltorp told reporters in Geneva.

“We know that this number, at least 1 million women and girls, is just the tip of the iceberg,” she added.

Conflict-related sexual violence doubles

UN Women said conflict-related sexual violence doubled last year. It also cited a recent report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, a group of 38 mostly developed countries, which found that development assistance declined by nearly a quarter last year to USD 174 billion, the biggest annual contraction on record.

“Without immediate action, the organisations that have kept women and girls alive through the world's worst crises risk becoming another casualty of war,” Calltorp said.

Many UN organisations have cut thousands of jobs and reduced aid programmes worldwide over the past 18 months following funding cuts by the US and other major donors.

As part of the UN80 reform process, the world body has been considering merging UN Women with UNFPA, the agency dealing with sexual and reproductive health.