Spotlighting Remarkable Women and Girls

Women-Led Groups Receive Less Than 1% of Humanitarian Aid, Despite Being the Lifeline in Crisis

By Tilly Boateng

When disaster strikes, women’s organizations are often the first to respond. They offer shelter, health services, protection and hope. Yet today, women-led organizations (WLOs) receive less than 1% of humanitarian aid globally, jeopardizing their ability to support communities in crisis zones.

The Hidden Heroism of Women on the Ground

Across conflict areas, women’s organizations are delivering essential services. In Lebanon, for example, UN Women found that 47 out of 50 surveyed WLOs were deeply involved in relief efforts. These groups provided life-saving assistance, including food (40%), emergency education (40%), hygiene kits, and shelter, while reaching vulnerable populations like refugees (60%) and people with disabilities (40%).

But despite being on the frontlines and deeply embedded in their communities, only 8% of the humanitarian response funding in Lebanon went to women-led organizations.

When Funding Isn’t a Lifeline but a Lifeline Denied

UN Women’s global report underscores the gravity of the shortfall. Between 2021 and 2022, WLOs and women’s rights organizations received less than 1% (about US$142 million) of total humanitarian aid. As a result, 62% of those organizations had to reduce services, interrupting vital support like healthcare, economic aid, and protection from gender-based violence. Alarmingly, 67% scaled back support for GBV services, leaving survivors even more vulnerable.

Imagine the cost: over 500 women and girls die each day in crises from preventable pregnancy and childbirth complications due to unsafe or inaccessible care. With WLOs struggling, these figures are a stark reminder of the human impact at stake.

Gender-Based Violence: A Shockingly Underfunded Priority

While crises escalate the risk of gender-based violence (GBV), some estimates say 70% of women in conflicts experience it, global humanitarian spending on GBV remains under 1% of total aid. This low level of investment is catastrophic when protection should be a top priority.

A Global Snapshot and Growing Stakes

The picture is clear: crises are increasing, climate shocks, wars, displacement, but the support for women-led coordination and care is alarmingly low. About 614 million women and girls live in conflict zones today; they are nearly eight times more likely to be food insecure than men in the same regions.

Still, less than 1% of official development assistance is directed toward women’s rights initiatives in humanitarian contexts, a gap that undermines equitable recovery and resilience.

When Funding Disappears, Crisis Deepens

In Ukraine, the impact of funding cuts became immediate and harrowing. A recent survey found that 72% of women’s rights organizations were severely disrupted, and numerous groups risked total closure without new funds. Shockingly, less than 1% of ODA to Ukraine specifically targeted gender equity, despite the acute need.

Change Is Possible: Investing in Feminist Humanitarianism Pays Off

Amid these gaps, there’s hope in initiatives grounded in feminist aid principles. The UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women reached over 14.7 million people through 180 women-led organizations in 74 countries, but its budget remains small compared to global need.

Similarly, the Women, Peace, and Humanitarian Fund (WPHF) supported 579 local WLOs across 34 crisis-hit countries, showing what is possible when funding is flexible, direct, and feminist-led.

Why is this important?

  • Effectiveness over bureaucracy: WLOs act fast, understand local needs, and sustain community trust.
  • Equity in action: When organizations led by women receive funding, they ensure women and girls receive protection, healthcare, and leadership.
  • Sustainable impact: Feminist funding models, long-term, flexible, local-first, build real resilience, healing ripple effects through entire communities.

A Call to Fund Feminist Aid

If global aid systems are serious about inclusion, resilience, and impact, they must pivot investment toward women-led and rights-based organizations, not thin crumbs, but real partnership. Without this shift, we risk sidelining hope where people need it most.

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Raising Women Magazine Issue 55 – October 2026

We spend a remarkable amount of time telling girls who they should become, often before they have finished discovering who they are. Apparently, growing up comes with a job description nobody remembers applying for.

In Issue 55, our cover girls, Isabel Idibia and Princess Sade Obaitan, remind us that famous surnames and royal titles may introduce you, but they should never define you.

From girls conquering oceans and swimming pools to conversations about beauty, culture and ambition, this edition examines the expectations we inherit and the courage required to question them.

In Find Her Light, I also reflect on the careers I might have pursued and why discovering another gift does not invalidate the life we have already built.

Perhaps that is the lesson running through these pages: identity is not a finished manuscript.

Every girl deserves the freedom to write her own story. And every woman deserves another chapter.

Raising Women Magazine Issue 54 – October 2026

“Because you’re a girl.”
Four little words that have spent generations doing an extraordinary amount of damage. Apparently, ambition, intelligence and audacity were once considered rather unladylike.
Fortunately, the girls featured in our 54th edition missed that memo.
As we celebrate the International Day of the Girl Child, we spotlight twelve remarkable girls rewriting the rules, while reminding ourselves that a girl should not need extraordinary achievements to deserve ordinary opportunities.
We also explore the expectations that complicate girlhood, the childhood wounds we carry into adulthood and, in my Find Her Light reflection, why the girl I once was might have a few lessons for the woman I have become.
Perhaps our greatest responsibility is not simply raising girls to conquer the world, but ensuring they never have to shrink themselves to belong in it.
Because you’re a girl?
What a wonderful reason to dream without limits.

Raising Women Magazine Issue 53 – September 2026

Apparently, saving the planet comes with a shopping list. Solar panels, electric cars, sustainable fashion and, preferably, a bank account that understands the assignment.

In Issue 53, our cover woman, Professor Joyashree Roy, challenges us to reconsider what sustainability really costs, who pays, and why the cheapest choices today may leave tomorrow’s generations with the bill.

But this issue is also about the invisible price tags attached to everyday life. From passport privilege and the cultural expectations of a “good woman” to motherhood, personal boundaries and the delicate art of enjoying life before finishing every task, we examine the systems shaping our choices.

We also celebrate women turning overlooked problems into extraordinary opportunities.

Perhaps progress begins when we stop asking only what things cost and start asking what they are worth.

A better world should not be a luxury reserved for those who can afford it.
Happy reading!

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Raising Women Magazine Issue 52 – September 2026

This issue asks a deceptively simple question: can we save the planet without making ordinary people pay the highest price?
Our cover star, Sascha Gabizon, brings that question sharply into focus, challenging us to think about climate action not only through carbon, but through fairness, access and gender. Because going green sounds wonderful until sustainability becomes something only the wealthy can afford.
Across these pages, we follow climate change into unexpected places. Into our wardrobes, our food, our cultural traditions and even the price of our morning coffee. We also continue our important First Daughters conversation, explore what women really mean when they speak about safety, and look at 111 Miss World contestants whose purpose projects remind us that beauty today carries increasingly bigger expectations.
This edition is ultimately about responsibility, but responsibility shared fairly.
Because saving our planet cannot become another luxury.
And perhaps the greenest future is one everyone can actually afford.

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We spend a remarkable amount of time telling girls who they should become, often before they have finished discovering who they are. Apparently, growing up comes with a job description nobody remembers applying for.

In Issue 55, our cover girls, Isabel Idibia and Princess Sade Obaitan, remind us that famous surnames and royal titles may introduce you, but they should never define you.

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Perhaps that is the lesson running through these pages: identity is not a finished manuscript.

Every girl deserves the freedom to write her own story. And every woman deserves another chapter.

Raising Women Magazine Issue 54 – October 2026

“Because you’re a girl.”
Four little words that have spent generations doing an extraordinary amount of damage. Apparently, ambition, intelligence and audacity were once considered rather unladylike.
Fortunately, the girls featured in our 54th edition missed that memo.
As we celebrate the International Day of the Girl Child, we spotlight twelve remarkable girls rewriting the rules, while reminding ourselves that a girl should not need extraordinary achievements to deserve ordinary opportunities.
We also explore the expectations that complicate girlhood, the childhood wounds we carry into adulthood and, in my Find Her Light reflection, why the girl I once was might have a few lessons for the woman I have become.
Perhaps our greatest responsibility is not simply raising girls to conquer the world, but ensuring they never have to shrink themselves to belong in it.
Because you’re a girl?
What a wonderful reason to dream without limits.

Raising Women Magazine Issue 53 – September 2026

Apparently, saving the planet comes with a shopping list. Solar panels, electric cars, sustainable fashion and, preferably, a bank account that understands the assignment.

In Issue 53, our cover woman, Professor Joyashree Roy, challenges us to reconsider what sustainability really costs, who pays, and why the cheapest choices today may leave tomorrow’s generations with the bill.

But this issue is also about the invisible price tags attached to everyday life. From passport privilege and the cultural expectations of a “good woman” to motherhood, personal boundaries and the delicate art of enjoying life before finishing every task, we examine the systems shaping our choices.

We also celebrate women turning overlooked problems into extraordinary opportunities.

Perhaps progress begins when we stop asking only what things cost and start asking what they are worth.

A better world should not be a luxury reserved for those who can afford it.
Happy reading!

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Raising Women Magazine Issue 52 – September 2026

This issue asks a deceptively simple question: can we save the planet without making ordinary people pay the highest price?
Our cover star, Sascha Gabizon, brings that question sharply into focus, challenging us to think about climate action not only through carbon, but through fairness, access and gender. Because going green sounds wonderful until sustainability becomes something only the wealthy can afford.
Across these pages, we follow climate change into unexpected places. Into our wardrobes, our food, our cultural traditions and even the price of our morning coffee. We also continue our important First Daughters conversation, explore what women really mean when they speak about safety, and look at 111 Miss World contestants whose purpose projects remind us that beauty today carries increasingly bigger expectations.
This edition is ultimately about responsibility, but responsibility shared fairly.
Because saving our planet cannot become another luxury.
And perhaps the greenest future is one everyone can actually afford.

Raising Women Magazine Issue 051 – August 2026

Equal. Such a small word for such a complicated idea.

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Progress deserves celebration. But celebration should never make us complacent.

We have opened many doors.

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We are closer.

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Raising Women Magazine Issue 050 – August 2026

Fifty issues. That feels worth pausing for.
Not because fifty is simply a lovely round number, but because every issue represents another opportunity to ask better questions about women, culture and the world we are building.
And Issue 50 certainly asks questions.
Our cover story, PRETTY, BY DESIGN, takes us to South Korea and its billion dollar pursuit of beauty, examining what happens when appearance becomes intertwined with confidence, opportunity and social capital. But before we become too fascinated by South Korea, perhaps we should check our own mirrors. The pursuit of “better” is increasingly global.
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Fifty editions later, Raising Women Magazine remains curious, global and committed to conversations that matter.
Here’s to 50.
And to everything we are still becoming.