Aid cuts leave at least one million women and girls without vital support: UN

NEW YORK, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 12th Jul, 2026) At least one million women and girls have lost access to critical humanitarian support since January 2025 as unprecedented aid cuts push women's organisations in crisis zones to the brink of collapse, the UN’s gender equality agency, UN Women, said.

The warning comes in a new report, Beyond the breaking Point, which finds that those providing essential services to women and girls are being forced to reduce or suspend programmes just as global humanitarian needs reach historic highs.

According to the latest figures, around 120 million women and girls worldwide now require humanitarian assistance and protection. Yet the local women's organisations best placed to reach them are facing severe funding shortages, despite often operating in places where international agencies cannot.

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“Every Dollar withdrawn from women's organisations is a dollar withdrawn from survivors of conflict-related sexual violence, displaced mothers, girls forced from school, and communities struggling to survive,” said Sofia Calltorp,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 Chief of Humanitarian Action.

UN Women warned that agencies and partners are being forced to cut programmes at precisely the moment they are needed most.

UN Women is calling for sustained investment in women's organizations, describing them as indispensable first responders, defenders of women's rights and essential partners in recovery and peacebuilding.

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