The United Nations warned on July 10 that at least one million women and girls had lost access to critical support due to dramatic cuts to foreign aid spending since January 2025.
In a fresh report, the U.N. Women agency decried a collapse of women's organizations at a time when needs are soaring.
U.S. President Donald Trump slashed foreign aid after taking office last year, while other key donor countries have also been tightening their belts.
"The women's organizations at risk of being shut down are on the frontlines of the world's most severe humanitarian crises," Sofia Calltorp, U.N. Women's head of humanitarian action, said in a statement.
"Every dollar withdrawn from women's organizations is a dollar withdrawn from survivors of conflict-related sexual violence, displaced mothers, girls forced from school, and communities struggling to survive."
At a time when armed conflicts around the world are at their highest levels since World War II, around 120 million women and girls require humanitarian assistance and protection, U.N. Women said.
Its report, based on responses from 855 women-led and women's rights organisations across 52 crisis-affected countries, found that 84 percent of the groups had seen demand for their services increase since January 2025.
"Nearly nine in 10 say they can no longer meet current levels of need", the agency said, while "two in five organisations surveyed expect to shut down, temporarily or permanently, within the next year."
To keep the organisations afloat, it highlighted that leaders and employees were paying with their own labor and wellbeing.
A full 65 percent of women-led organizations reported staff working without pay to keep services running, it pointed out, while nearly half reported rising burnout among their staff.
