Across West and Central Africa, humanitarian crises are disrupting lives in profoundly unequal ways. For women and girls, conflict and displacement can bring heightened risks of violence, loss of livelihoods and barriers to services they depend on. This World Humanitarian Day, we look at five ways humanitarian workers and women-led organizations are responding, from protecting women at greater risk of violence to helping them rebuild their lives with dignity. 1. By ensuring neglected crises do not mean neglected women and girls Humanitarian actors are often asked to “do more with less”. But as needs continue to grow and resources shrink, there comes a point when less simply means fewer women and girls can be reached with the protection and support they need. Nearly 55 million people across West and Central Africa are projected to face acute food insecurity this year, as crises across the Central Sahel, north-east Nigeria, the Central African Republic and eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo remain severely underfunded. In north-east Nigeria, women and children — particularly girls — account for approximately 83 per cent of people in need of humanitarian assistance, according to a UN Women evaluation, illustrating how protracted crises can disproportionately affect women and children. Globally, UN Women’s 2026 Beyond the Breaking Point report found that 84 per cent of women-led and women’s rights organizations surveyed are seeing more women and girls requiring support, while 88 per cent say their capacity falls below current needs. In underfunded and often overlooked crises, the needs, rights, and voices of women and girls are at heightened risk of being marginalized. On the front lines, UN Women’s humanitarian workers help ensure that gender equality and the priorities of women and girls remain central to humanitarian response efforts. 2. By delivering protection that responds to the realities women and girls face Humanitarian crises deepen existing inequalities, exposing women and girls to greater risks of violence and exclusion from essential services. During the 2026 Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, women and girls accounted for 53.4 per cent of laboratory-confirmed cases as of 7 June. Among adolescents, the disparity was even greater: girls represented more than 61 per cent of confirmed cases. “When facing Ebola, women and youth are the most exposed to rumors and misinformation, while women carry the heaviest burden as primary caregivers for the sick,” says Isabelle Pendeza, President of the Women's Network of the Collective of Women's Associations for Development (CAFD) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In north-east Nigeria, nearly 6 in 10 people in need of humanitarian assistance are women and girls. They also account for 55 per cent of people forced from their homes, according to a 2023 analysis by OCHA, UNFPA and UN Women across Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States. Displacement leaves women and girls facing needs for protection, health, livelihoods and support to rebuild their lives. In the Central African Republic, women and girls account for the overwhelming majority of reported gender-based violence cases, representing 96 per cent of the 42,846 cases recorded between 2023 and 2025. In Mali, the scale of need remains equally alarming, with 2.5 million people requiring support related to gender-based violence, while reported cases in parts of Timbuktu increased by 77 per cent in early 2026. Effective protection starts with understanding what women and girls face in a crisis. On the ground, UN Women humanitarian workers help bring those realities into the response, working with women’s organizations and communities to identify specific needs, protect rights and dignity, and ensure women have a voice in the decisions that affect them. 3. By helping women rebuild their lives with dignity For women displaced by conflict, protection must go beyond reaching physical safety. It must guarantee the resources, opportunities, and sustained support they need to rebuild their lives with dignity, earn an income, develop new skills, and reclaim control over their future. Investing in their recovery is not only a humanitarian imperative; it is essential to advancing rights, resilience, and lasting peace. In Mali, H.Y. remembers doing whatever she could to provide for her children: “Before benefiting from the project’s funds, I used to wash clothes, pound millets and sell wild herbs just to take care of my children. Today, I recalled back my name in the community with a physical shelter. A shelter of dignity, a shelter of peace.” In conflict-affected areas of Cameroon, displaced women have also had to start over, away from their homes and the livelihoods they once relied on, sometimes after years away from education. Since 2019, thousands of women, including refugees, internally displaced women and
Don't miss out on breaking stories and in-depth articles.
