‘Keep the lights on’ for women and girls caught up in crisis

This article is published in association with United Nations.

Women and girls living through humanitarian crises are at risk of being overlooked – just as they are at their most vulnerable. 

The UN’s reproductive health agency, UNFPA, has been working to assess the impact of recent steep funding cuts, warning that from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Haiti, Sudan and beyond, a lack of funding for reproductive care or treatment to tackle gender-based violence, is causing untold suffering.

Millions of them are already experiencing the horrors of war, climate change and natural disasters.

Facing a dark future

As support becomes increasingly scarce, women and girls are being overlooked in their hour of greatest need, the agency argues in a new campaign to shed light on their plight – Don’t Let the Lights Go Out.

UNFPA’s humanitarian response p​lans were already under 30 per cent funded in 2024, before this year’s severe cuts began taking effect.

The funding situation on the ground is predicted to get worse, which means a shortage of midwives; a lack of medicines and equipment to handle childbirth complications; shuttered safe spaces; less healthcare overall and cuts to counselling or legal services for survivors of gender-based violence.

The United States has announced cuts of approximately $330 million to UNFPA worldwide, which according to the agency will significantly undermine efforts to prevent maternal deaths.

The agency recently warned on the devastating impacts that the massive cuts will have in Afghanistan, one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

Sounding the alarm

The need for health and protection services is highest in crisis zones: 70 per cent of women there are subjected to gender-based violence – double the rate in non-crisis settings.

Furthermore, around 60 per cent of preventable maternal deaths occur in crisis-hit countries.

Through the Don’t Let the Lights Go Out campaign, the UN aims to shine a light on the needs of women and girls in crisis, raise funds to support them, and to reaffirm that women’s health, safety and rights must remain non-negotiable priorities in any humanitarian response.

© UNICEF/Azizullah Karimi

Gaza’s most vulnerable

In Gaza, with food and essential medicines critically low, pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers and children in general are being severely impacted.

Reports show that one in every five people is now facing starvation. For an estimated 55,000 pregnant women, each missed meal increases the risk of miscarriages, stillbirths and undernourished newborns.

According to a doctor at Al-Awda Hospital who spoke to the UN agency, there’s been “a significant increase in cases of low birthweight babies, directly linked to maternal malnutrition and anaemia during pregnancy.”

Health system on its knees

Relentless attacks on hospitals, health facilities and medical staff have left the healthcare system in ruins.

Amid these dire conditions, almost 11,000 pregnant women are already reported to be at risk of famine, and nearly 17,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women will need urgent treatment for acute malnutrition over the coming months. For many, the fallout is devastating.

In 2025, UNFPA is seeking $99 million to address the ongoing and emerging needs in Palestine, but as of April, just $12.5 million has been received.