The United Nations’ warning that more than half of Afghanistan’s women-led organizations could suspend operations or close within a year exposes the severe cost of the international aid retreat. The crisis is not unfolding in isolation. It is developing alongside Taliban restrictions that have pushed women and girls out of education, employment, public life and many essential services.
The warning is based on a survey of 74 women-led organizations operating in Afghanistan. More than half of those surveyed said they could be forced to suspend operations or shut down within the following year if funding conditions did not improve. Nearly three-quarters reported funding reductions during 2025, while approximately two-thirds had enough financial resources to continue for six months or less. Around half had received no new funding since the beginning of 2025, and 92 percent had lost staff.
These figures demonstrate that the threat is already affecting organizational capacity. The projected closures are not simply a distant possibility. Staff reductions, stalled programmes, unpaid workers and shrinking services indicate that many women’s organizations are already operating close to collapse.
The consequences would extend far beyond the organizations themselves. These groups provide legal assistance, healthcare referrals, psychosocial counselling, education, livelihoods support, protection from gender-based violence and emergency humanitarian aid. In many Afghan communities, they are among the few institutions able to reach women through female employees and trusted local networks.
Aid cuts and restrictions reinforce each other
Afghanistan remains one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises. The United Nations and humanitarian partners launched a 2026 appeal of approximately US$1.7 billion to assist nearly 18 million people. Around 21.9 million Afghans, equivalent to roughly 45 percent of the population, were expected to require humanitarian assistance. Women and children made up more than three-quarters of the people prioritized under the humanitarian response.
However, the appeal has remained severely underfunded. UN reporting at different points in 2026 placed funding between approximately 10 and 26 percent, depending on the date of measurement and the specific humanitarian plan being cited. Although these figures represent different stages of the funding cycle, they reveal a consistent reality: available resources remain far below humanitarian requirements.
This shortage is especially damaging for women’s organizations because their work is taking place within an increasingly restricted operating environment. Since returning to power in August 2021, the Taliban has issued more than 100 decrees, directives and policy measures affecting women’s education, employment, movement, healthcare, political participation and access to justice.
Girls remain barred from secondary education, while women are prohibited from attending universities. Afghanistan is now the only country in the world where girls and women are formally excluded from secondary and higher education. Approximately 2.4 million Afghan girls are currently denied access to secondary schooling, and UNESCO has warned that the number could rise to four million by 2030 if the policy continues.
The result is a destructive cycle. International funding cuts reduce the number of women-led organizations and employees, while Taliban restrictions make it more difficult for the remaining organizations to recruit, travel, operate and deliver services. The agencies most capable of reaching Afghan women are therefore being weakened at the moment when women face the greatest barriers to obtaining assistance.
Why women-led organizations matter
The closure of women-led organizations would remove essential humanitarian infrastructure. These groups do not merely conduct advocacy campaigns or awareness programmes. They assist women facing immediate and life-threatening problems.
Their services include maternal and reproductive healthcare referrals, legal support, protection for survivors of domestic and gender-based violence, mental-health counselling, skills training and livelihood assistance. They also help women access humanitarian distributions and public services that may otherwise remain beyond their reach.
The importance of such organizations is illustrated by accounts documented by UN Women. One Afghan woman described experiencing severe distress, physical stiffness, collapse and loss of control before receiving counselling and medical support through a women’s organization.
“The counselling and treatment I received from the doctor [at the women’s organization] have really helped me, and my condition has improved. Now I feel much better than before,”
she said.
This example shows why women’s organizations cannot easily be replaced by general humanitarian programmes. Afghan women may be unable to travel independently, interact with male workers or seek assistance without a male guardian. Female-led organizations can provide confidential services in ways that are more accessible and socially acceptable for women living under Taliban restrictions.
Sofia Calltorp, UN Women’s Chief of Humanitarian Action, captured the broader consequence of funding cuts in one 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.”
The statement places the funding crisis within the wider humanitarian system. A reduction in support does not simply affect administrative budgets. It can remove the only available pathway to safety, healthcare, counselling or legal assistance for vulnerable women and girls.
The scale of organizational decline
The Afghanistan figures reflect a wider global crisis facing women-led organizations in conflict and humanitarian settings. A 2026 UN Women report surveyed 855 women-led organizations in 52 crisis-affected countries. Nearly nine in ten said they could no longer meet the level of need confronting their communities, while 84 percent reported increased demand for their services. Three-quarters had cut staff, and nearly two-thirds said workers were continuing without pay to keep essential programmes operating.
At least one million women and girls have lost access to vital humanitarian support since January 2025 as aid cuts push women’s organizations towards collapse. Half of surveyed organizations had introduced waiting lists or were turning women and girls away. Approximately 86 percent reported increased gender-based violence, 62 percent said safe spaces had closed or been significantly reduced, and 82 percent observed that more girls were leaving school.
The Afghanistan survey is particularly alarming because the country already has one of the world’s most restrictive environments for women. If more than half of the surveyed organizations close, the impact will likely include fewer protection referrals, less mental-health support, reduced livelihood assistance and weaker monitoring of abuses.
Institutional collapse also has a long-term effect. Once experienced staff leave, community relationships weaken and local knowledge is lost. Rebuilding those networks later would require significantly more money and time than maintaining them now.
Effects on healthcare and protection
Afghanistan’s healthcare system is especially dependent on female workers. UN Women has reported maternal mortality of approximately 638 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2024. Restrictions on women’s education and employment threaten the future supply of female doctors, nurses, midwives, community health workers and social workers.
The United Nations Children’s Fund has warned that Afghanistan could face a deficit of more than 25,000 female teachers and health workers by 2030 if current restrictions continue. This shortage would affect both the quality and accessibility of essential services.
The consequences are immediate as well as future-oriented. UN reporting has associated aid cuts with the closure of 300 nutrition sites serving malnourished mothers and children and the suspension of 216 gender-based-violence service points. More than one million women and girls were affected by the loss of those services.
When women’s organizations close, survivors of violence may lose access to shelters, counselling, legal advice and medical referrals. Women experiencing depression, trauma or suicidal thoughts may no longer have safe places to seek help. A system already struggling to provide protection could become even less capable of responding to abuse.
Economic costs of excluding women
The crisis also carries a substantial economic cost. UN Women has estimated that only 7 percent of Afghan women were employed, compared with 84 percent of men. A separate UN analysis cited women’s labour-force participation at 24 percent compared with 89 percent for men. These figures refer to different measures and reporting periods, but both demonstrate an exceptionally large gender gap.
UN Women projected that the continued exclusion of women could cost Afghanistan approximately US$920 million, equivalent to 5.8 percent of GDP, between 2024 and 2026. UNICEF separately estimated that restrictions on women’s education and employment were costing the country approximately US$84 million annually in lost economic output.
Women-led organizations help limit these losses by providing vocational training, business support, financial assistance and employment. Their closure would remove income opportunities for female workers and weaken support for women-headed households.
The economic consequences extend to the national level. Women’s exclusion reduces household income, limits the tax base, lowers productivity and prevents Afghanistan from developing a skilled workforce. Preventing girls from attending school also creates a future shortage of educated women who could work in teaching, healthcare, administration, law and humanitarian response.
Social isolation and mental-health damage
The United Nations’ wider analysis indicates that restrictions have transformed women’s everyday lives. More than half of surveyed Afghan women said they left home only once or twice a month. Nearly three-quarters felt unsafe leaving home without a male guardian, while more than half avoided public spaces such as markets and health facilities. Approximately 70 percent described their mental health as bad or very bad.
These findings show that the crisis is not limited to the denial of formal rights. It is also producing sustained isolation, fear and psychological harm.
Women’s organizations provide spaces where women can communicate, organize, obtain information and receive assistance without exposing themselves to unnecessary risk. Their disappearance would deepen the social isolation created by restrictions on movement and public participation.
The weakening of these institutions could also normalize women’s exclusion. If organizations that defend women’s rights and provide services continue to disappear, the absence of women from public life may begin to appear permanent rather than the result of an imposed policy requiring international opposition.
The international community’s responsibility
Fifty-six countries, including the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates, have called on the Taliban to reverse restrictions on women and girls. Their joint position reflects widespread international concern over what many governments and UN bodies describe as systematic repression.
Yet diplomatic statements have not been matched by adequate financial support. This contradiction lies at the centre of Afghanistan’s crisis. Governments condemn the Taliban’s restrictions but reduce the resources available to Afghan women who are trying to survive and challenge those restrictions.
UN Women has insisted that international disengagement must not become the new normal.
“Despite the restrictions on women and girls and the current conflicts…no matter what, UN Women is staying and delivering in Afghanistan,”
said UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous.
She also warned,
“When we start to accept this as normal, we stop believing it can change…change is still possible, but only if the world continues to stand with Afghan women.”.
The message is clear: aid should not be treated as a substitute for diplomatic pressure, but diplomatic pressure cannot protect women if the organizations serving them are allowed to collapse. Humanitarian funding and human-rights advocacy must operate together.
What should happen next
The most urgent requirement is predictable, flexible and multi-year financing for Afghan women-led organizations. Short-term emergency grants may delay closure, but long-term support is necessary to retain staff, plan services and preserve institutional knowledge.
Donors should provide more direct funding to local women’s organizations instead of concentrating resources exclusively in large international agencies. Afghan groups often possess the trust, language skills and community access required to deliver services safely.
Humanitarian agencies must also protect the participation of female workers in aid operations. Restrictions that prevent Afghan women from working with UN bodies or nongovernmental organizations should be challenged through coordinated diplomacy and operational negotiations.
Funding decisions should be assessed by their impact on women’s access to services. It is not enough to count how many aid packages are distributed if women cannot reach distribution points, communicate with providers or obtain assistance from female staff.
The United Nations warning about Afghanistan’s vanishing women’s organizations reveals the human cost of global aid retreat. More than half of the surveyed organizations may close within a year, while existing funding cuts have already reduced staffing, suspended services and left women without essential support.
The Taliban’s restrictions remain the main structural driver of Afghanistan’s gender crisis, but declining international assistance is allowing those restrictions to become more devastating. Without sustained funding and coordinated diplomatic pressure, Afghan women could lose many of the last institutions defending their safety, health, livelihoods and rights.
As Calltorp warned,
“Without immediate action, the organizations that have kept women and girls alive through the world’s worst crises risk becoming another casualty of war.”
