One million women and girls lose access to humanitarian support as foreign aid cuts reach record levels

A new report by UN Women has revealed that at least one million women and girls lost access to humanitarian support over the past 18 months, a period that saw the sharpest annual drop in foreign aid on record. The findings, based on responses from 855 women-led and women's rights organisations in 52 conflict- and crisis-affected countries, lay bare the cascading consequences of donor budget cuts that began soon after US President Donald Trump took office.

Collapse of capacity

Eighty-four percent of the organisations polled reported an increase in demand for their services since January 2025, yet nearly nine in ten said they can no longer meet the current level of need. Two in five expect to shut down, temporarily or permanently, within the next year. The US alone drove three-quarters of the decline in global aid between 2024 and 2025, with its foreign assistance falling by more than 50%, according to OECD data cited in the report. Other major donors, including the United Kingdom, France and Germany, have also trimmed aid budgets amid fiscal pressures and higher defence spending.

The women's organisations at risk of being shut down are on the frontlines of the world's most severe humanitarian crises. In countries including Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Haiti, they operate where international actors cannot and stay long after global attention has moved on.

The human cost of every dollar lost

At a time when armed conflict is at its highest level since the Second World War, around 120 million women and girls need humanitarian assistance and protection. The report details how the funding gap is already translating into closed shelters, cancelled health outreach and lost safe spaces. Sixty-three percent of organisations reduced services in remote communities, half have introduced waiting lists or are turning people away, and sixty percent said they are reaching fewer women and girls than before January 2025. Eighty-six percent recorded an increase in gender-based violence in the communities they serve, and conflict-related sexual violence doubled in 2025.

Every dollar withdrawn from women's organisations is a dollar withdrawn from survivors of conflict-related sexual violence, displaced mothers, girls forced from school, and communities struggling to survive.

Organisations paying with their own labour

To keep services running, sixty-five percent of women-led organisations reported that staff are working without pay, and nearly half described rising burnout among their teams. Over three-quarters have cut staff roles, and one-fifth have suspended work aimed at advancing women's leadership and gender equality. UN Women described a growing pattern of organisations forced into "survival mode," with leaders drawing on personal resources while the systems designed to protect the most vulnerable are eroding.

Wider gender backlash

Beyond the immediate humanitarian fallout, the report warns that the dismantling of women's organisations is weakening women's participation in peace processes and public life. In several contexts, the financing cuts are part of a broader gender backlash, the agency said, with programmes on women's political leadership and legal rights among the first to be suspended. UN Women stressed that the consequences extend far beyond the current crisis, hollowing out the very infrastructure that would be needed for recovery.