Jurist Women’s organizations among hardest hit by foreign aid cuts: report

[Dadparvar]

Women’s rights organizations around the world are reaching “a breaking point” due to foreign aid cuts, according to a report published Tuesday by UN Women. The report says that a survey conducted in March found that 47 percent of the surveyed organizations are expecting to shut down over the next six months if current conditions continue.

The UN urges every developed member nation to contribute 0.7 percent of their gross national income (GNI) to official development assistance (ODA) every year. Yet, Concord, a group of NGOs dedicated to helping facilitate international cooperation, published in their 2024 Aidwatch report that 20 EU Member States decreased ODA as a percentage of GNI in 2023.

More recently, US President Donald Trump initiated cuts in foreign aid on his first day of office, by signing Executive Order No. 14,169. Titled “Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid,” the order instituted a 90-day pause on US ODA, and more recently led to the dismantling of USAID. According to the UN Women’s report, these reductions in assistance have led to only 7 percent of the $44.79 billion required for global humanitarian needs to be fulfilled over the last year.

The report, titled “At a Breaking Point: The Impact of Foreign Aid Cuts on Women’s Organizations in Humanitarian Crises Worldwide,” explains why women’s organizations in humanitarian crisis-stricken areas are among the UN organizations hardest-hit by budget cuts:

During humanitarian crises, women and girls are disproportionately affected by the collapse of essential services; their basic needs are among the first to go unmet and they are typically expected to compensate for gaps in service provision, taking on increased care-related tasks, providing food and water and caring for the sick. Pre-existing gender inequalities and discriminatory social norms are often exacerbated, restricting women and girls’ access to remaining services, rights, and personal autonomy.

The survey included in the report reached out to 411 women-led and women’s rights organizations across 44 humanitarian and crisis settings. Other than finding that 47 percent of the organizations are expecting to be forced to shut down within the next six months if conditions continue, the survey found that 90 percent of the women’s organizations have been financially impacted, 51 percent have suspended programming, and 72 percent have already laid off staff as a result of the budget cuts.

The report concludes with a call to action for the international community to prioritize and track direct, flexible, and multi-year funding to local women-led and women’s rights organizations in crisis countries; and to center local women’s leadership and meaningful participation as a core pillar in the humanitarian reset.

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