A new report by UN Women has revealed that sweeping aid cuts are crippling organizations working to end violence against women and girls, forcing many to suspend or shut down life-saving programmes and services.
The report, titled At Risk and Underfunded, draws on a global survey of 428 women’s rights and civil society organisations and paints a stark picture of the current crisis.
According to the findings, 34 per cent of organisations have had to suspend or close programmes aimed at ending gender-based violence, while over 40 per cent have scaled back or completely shut down critical services such as shelters, legal aid, and healthcare support due to immediate funding shortfalls.
In addition, 78 per cent of respondents reported reduced access to essential services for survivors, and 59 per cent observed an increase in impunity and normalization of violence. Nearly one in four organizations said they were forced to halt preventive interventions entirely.
“Women’s rights organisations are the backbone of progress on violence against women, yet they are being pushed to the brink. We cannot allow funding cuts to erase decades of hard-won gains. Without sustained investment, violence against women and girls will only rise,” Chief of the Ending Violence Against Women and Girls Section at UN Women, Kalliopi Mingeirou said.
The report warns that the crisis comes amid a global rollback on women’s rights, with backlash reported in one in four countries noting that funding losses are compelling many organisations to prioritize short-term survival and service delivery over long-term advocacy and reform efforts
Globally, it said violence against women and girls remains one of the most pervasive human rights violations.
UN Women estimates that 736 million women almost one in three worldwide have experienced physical or sexual violence, often at the hands of an intimate partner.
Earlier this year, the agency cautioned that nearly half of women-led organisations in crisis zones were at risk of closure, a warning now echoed in At Risk and Underfunded, which notes that only five per cent of surveyed organisations expect to sustain operations for more than two years.
The report also found that 85 per cent of organisations foresee significant backsliding in legal protections for women and girls, while 57 per cent expressed concern about heightened risks faced by women human rights defenders.
The findings come as the global community marks 30 years since the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a landmark framework for achieving gender equality that placed ending violence against women at its core.
UN Women therefore call on governments and international donors to ringfence, expand, and make funding more flexible, warning that without urgent action, the progress of the past three decades could be undone.
