19 JUNE2025W MAN LEADERGLOBAL W MAN LEADERGLOBAL grams offering protection and multi-purpose cash assistance to women who have had to move through war zones, displacement and famine. In addition, 72 percent indicate having to lay off workers, a decision that considerably diminishes their capacity to meet increasing needs.UN Women Humanitarian Action Chief Sofia Call-torp expressed grave concern, "The situation is criti-cal. Women and girls simply cannot afford to lose the lifelines that women's organisations are providing." She underscored that the cuts not only undermine women's rights but also threaten global humanitarian efforts where women's organisations are often front-line responders.AID CUTS IMPACTING WOMEN & GIRLS IN NEEDAmongst the 308 million individuals in need of humanitarian aid across the world, women and girls are always disproportionately affected. During crises, they are partial-ly exposed to sexual violence, malnutrition and even ma-ternal health complications, all of which are preventable with timely and targeted in-terventions.Women-led groups have played a key role in filling the gap left by conventional hu-manitarian actors. They provide culturally appropriate and com-munity-driven services in at-risk areas, which are frequently the only ser-vices of their kind. Nevertheless, their con-tribution remains underestimated and insufficiently financed. Calltorp made it clear that the investment in these groups is "not only a matter of equality and rights, but it is also a strategic imperative."The harsh underfunding also poses ethical and practical questions, while in the absence of local women's organisations, hundreds of thousands of women and girls could lose access to life-saving ser-vices that provide a difference between life and death.LOCAL ACTION IN AUSTRALIAIn response to the global challenges, UN Women Aus-tralia is scaling up action to influence change at the national level. Under the slogan "Think Global, Act Local", the organization has introduced a new Lead-ership Network to bridge gaps in gender in Australia.Padma Raman, PSM, Office for Women Executive Director at the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, emphasized cross-sector collaboration. She said, "The Network is an unprecedented chance to bring private, government, academic and communi-ty leaders together to learn, work together and create change."Even with progress, there are still huge gender gaps in Australia. Women receive only 78 cents for every dollar paid to men, and 79 percent of employ-ers continue to have gender pay gaps outside the de-sired range. UN Women Australia CEO Simone Clarke wrote, "While progress has been made, wom-en remain dramatically underrepre-sented in leadership across most sectors."Through building conver-sation and collaborative action, the Leadership Network hopes to accel-erate gender equality and enable more wom-en to occupy leadership positions in every as-pect of life.A CALL FOR NECESSARY & SUSTAINED SUPPORTThe UN Women's report mes-sage is clear, women's organisa-tions are not merely service provid-ers, they are lifelines. Their impending crash from foreign aid reductions is not merely a gender problem, but an impending global humanitar-ian crisis. If it receives no urgent and targeted invest-ment, the world stands to lose some of its most effec-tive change agents and crisis responders.Meanwhile, homegrown initiatives like Australia's Leadership Network prove that one can act firmly at home without ignoring international gender con-cerns. To actually make progress towards gender equality and humanitarian resilience, stakeholders at every level, governments, donors, and civil society, must make funding and support for women-led or-ganisations a priority before it is too late.
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