1 Million Women Lose Healthcare Access as 90% of Aid Groups Can't Meet Need

For health systems serving conflict-affected populations, the sudden withdrawal of international aid is triggering a cascading crisis. The UN Women survey reveals that organizations providing critical medical, psychological, and reproductive health services are on the brink of collapse. With conflict-related sexual violence doubling in 2025, the unmet need for emergency contraception, STI treatment, trauma counseling, and safe delivery care is exploding—while the very groups that deliver these services are being dismantled.

At least 1 million women and girls have lost access to humanitarian and critical aid in the past 18 months as a direct result of international funding cuts, according to a survey released by UN Women on July 10, 2026. The findings paint a stark picture of a global aid infrastructure in retreat, with 84% of the 855 women’s organizations surveyed across 52 countries reporting increased needs since January 2025—precisely when the Trump administration in the United States, the largest U.N. donor, initiated deep cuts to foreign assistance. Nearly 90% of these groups now say they cannot meet the current level of demand, and one in five anticipate shutting down temporarily or permanently within the next year. The crisis is not merely budgetary; it is fundamentally a public health and human rights emergency. UN Women’s Chief of Humanitarian Action, Sofia Calltorp, described the funding withdrawal as a direct hit to “survivors of conflict-related sexual violence, displaced mothers, girls forced from school and communities struggling to survive.”

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The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a group of 38 mostly wealthy nations, reported that total development assistance fell by nearly a quarter in 2025 to $174 billion, the largest yearly contraction on record.

The backdrop is a reversal of decades of progress in gender-focused development. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a group of 38 mostly wealthy nations, reported that total development assistance fell by nearly a quarter in 2025 to $174 billion, the largest yearly contraction on record. The United States, which historically contributed roughly a quarter of the U.N.’s regular budget, has been the primary driver of this decline, though other major donors have also scaled back as they turned inward to address domestic economic pressures.

The consequences cascade most severely onto women in conflict zones. UN Women noted that conflict-related sexual violence doubled in 2025, yet the very organizations that provide medical and psychological care for survivors, such as Médecins Sans Frontières and local women’s shelters, are losing the funds that keep their doors open. The survey revealed that survivors are being turned away daily; hotlines go unanswered, safe houses close, and emergency obstetric care becomes unavailable. In regions like the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, and Myanmar, where sexual violence is systematically used as a weapon of war, the sudden withdrawal of support foretells a surge in untreated physical trauma, sexually transmitted infections, unwanted pregnancies, and long-term mental health disorders. The downstream effects are also economic and societal: women’s organizations are often the only source of income, legal aid, and education for displaced families, so their collapse will deepen poverty and instability.