UN Women warns: Funding crisis pushing global women’s rights groups to the brink
Funding cuts are threatening to dismantle frontline organisations that combat violence against women and girls globally, according to findings obtained by PulseNets from the UN’s gender equality agency, UN Women.
In its latest report titled At Risk and Underfunded, the UN body warned that shrinking aid budgets have already forced one in three women’s anti-violence programmes to shut down or suspend operations. The study—based on a global survey of 428 women’s rights and civil society organisations—reveals a growing financial crisis that is severely undermining decades of progress toward gender equality.
More than 40 per cent of the surveyed groups have scaled back or completely halted essential services such as shelters, legal aid, psychosocial support, and healthcare assistance due to immediate funding gaps. Nearly 80 per cent of respondents reported a sharp decline in access to survivor support services, while 59 per cent expressed concern that impunity and the normalisation of gender-based violence were on the rise.
“Women’s rights organisations are the backbone of progress on violence against women, yet they’re being pushed to the brink,” said Kalliopi Mingeirou, Head of UN Women’s Ending Violence Against Women and Girls Section, in remarks obtained by PulseNets.
“We cannot allow funding cuts to erase decades of hard-won gains. Governments and donors must ringfence, expand, and make funding more flexible. Without sustained investment, violence against women and girls will only intensify.”
UN Women emphasised that violence against women remains one of the most pervasive human rights violations worldwide. Its data show that 736 million women—nearly one in three globally—have experienced physical or sexual violence, often from an intimate partner.
Earlier this year, the agency had raised alarms about women-led organisations in crisis-affected regions nearing collapse. Those fears, PulseNets learnt, have now been confirmed by the new report, which paints a troubling picture of systemic underfunding.
Only five per cent of the organisations surveyed said they could sustain operations beyond two years, while 85 per cent anticipated severe setbacks to laws and protections for women and girls. Over half also told PulseNets they were deeply concerned about escalating threats to women human rights defenders, especially in countries witnessing rising hostility toward gender advocacy.
The report further warns that these funding shortages are unfolding amid a global backlash against women’s rights, now visible in at least one in four countries. As financial support dwindles, many groups have been forced to shift resources from long-term advocacy to short-term emergency responses, jeopardising systemic reform efforts.
Also Read: IPCR, UN Women, UNESCO advocate women inclusion in conflict resolution committees
Released as the world commemorates 30 years since the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the At Risk and Underfunded report serves as a stark reminder that without consistent and flexible investment, the promise of gender equality—and the safety of millions of women and girls—remains dangerously fragile.
