NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 8 – UN Refugee Agency (UNCHR) has warned that critical funding shortages are leaving displaced women and girls across the world at unprecedented risk.
UNHCR said Friday that reports of conflict-related sexual violence have surged by 50 per cent in recent years.
Further the refugee agency noted that funding shortfalls are forcing humanitarian organizations to cut essential services in crisis-affected regions.
The organization stated that the funding challenges are forcing humanitarian organizations to cut essential services in crises affected regions affecting operations of safe houses and legal aid programmes that supported the victims.
“Women and girls fleeing war deserve to find safety. Yet across the world, they are now at even greater risk of rape and other forms of horrific violence,” said Ruven Menikdiwela, UNHCR’s Assistant High Commissioner for Protection.
“Without immediate funding, more safe houses will close, more survivors will be turned away, and more women and girls will face violence with no medical and psychosocial support. It’s heartbreaking and unacceptable.”
The agency warned that the global humanitarian funding gap is having devastating consequences, particularly in conflict zones.
In South Sudan, only 25 per cent of the dedicated spaces created by UNHCR for women and girls at risk of violence are currently operational, leaving up to 80,000 people without access to services such as emergency psychosocial support and legal and medical assistance.
“Programmes to protect refugees – particularly adolescent girls – from child marriage and other forms of violence have also been suspended, putting over 2,000 of them at aggravated risk,” UNHCR said.
In Ethiopia, according to the refugee organization, more than 200,000 refugees and internally displaced persons no longer have access to life-saving services, including a safe house that used to host women in immediate danger of being killed.
In Jordan, at least 63 programmes providing specialist support to women and girls are closing or on hold, leaving 200,000 vulnerable people in both refugee and host communities without help.
UNHCR warned that the current crisis in humanitarian funding risks pushing this “vital work beyond the point of no return.”
The refugee organization called for a sustained and increased investment in their safety, education and economic empowerment of women and girls to break the cycles of violence.
