UN: 1M Women Lost Access to Aid        07/10 06:14

   

   GENEVA (AP) -- At least 1 million women have lost access to humanitarian and 
other critical support as a result of budget cuts over the last 18 months, the 
U.N. agency focusing on women said Friday.

   UN Women says 84% of women's organizations surveyed had reported increased 
needs since January 2025, when the Trump administration in the United States -- 
the biggest U.N. donor -- took office and began cutbacks in foreign aid.

   "Every dollar withdrawn from women's organizations is a dollar withdrawn 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's chief of humanitarian action.

   Nearly 90% of the women's groups surveyed said they can't meet current 
levels of need anymore, and one in five said they expect to shut down 
temporarily or permanently within the next year.

   "UN Women has spoken to 855 women's organizations working in 52 countries, 
who have told us that these women and girls have been turned away due to 
funding cuts that are dismantling their organizations," Calltorp told reporters 
in Geneva.

   "We know that this number, at least 1 million women and girls, is just the 
tip of the iceberg," she added.

   Conflict-related sexual violence had doubled last year, UN Women said. It 
noted a recent report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and 
Development, a group of 38 mostly developed countries, that found that 
development assistance fell by nearly a quarter last year to $174 billion -- 
the largest yearly contraction on record.

   "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 said.

   Many U.N. organizations have cut thousands of jobs and reduced aid programs 
around the world over the last 18 months in the wake of funding cuts by the 
United States and other top donors.

   The world body, as part of a reform process known as UN80, has been 
considering the prospect of merging UN Women with UNFPA, the sexual and 
reproductive health agency.