Drops in official development assistance have especially affected women’s rights organizations the most

After a decade of slow growth in net official development assistance (ODA), 2025 saw a 23.3 per cent drop. The fall is expected to continue in 2026 and beyond. By 2028, net ODA is projected to be 9.9 per cent lower than in 2025, with the ratio to gross national income slipping to 0.21 per cent, against an agreed target of 0.7 per cent. Bilateral allocable ODA with gender equality objectives experienced a sharp reduction from 2023 to 2024, falling 13 per cent to its lowest volume since 2021. Women’s rights organizations, which have historically received less than 1 per cent of ODA for gender equality, were particularly affected. Their funding declined by 28 per cent from 2023 to 2024, with further reductions anticipated. Equally concerning, while ODA to end violence against women and girls rose steadily from 2020 to 2024, it is now projected to drop by 17–20 per cent in 2025. Substantial cuts are also expected in population and reproductive health support, where funding could decline by as much as 54.1 per cent from 2024 to 2026. Amidst funding cuts, 42 per cent of United Nations entities report actual or anticipated weakening of their gender equality efforts.

Together, these trends weaken the financing, data and institutional capacity needed to implement and monitor the SDGs. Only 15 per cent of the funding allocated to gender equality projects was associated with women's leadership initiatives — signaling that even within gender equality financing, women's leadership remains an underfunded priority. Current global data availability for gender-specific indicators across the SDGs, outside Goal 5, is 40.8 per cent for at least one data point since 2015. The share may shrink with disruptions to Demographic and Health Surveys, particularly for health, reproductive health and violence-related indicators. Data gaps echo leadership gaps in institutions responsible for setting measurement priorities and resourcing gender statistics. Globally, women make up only 27 per cent of chief statisticians in national statistical offices and 28 per cent in the United Nations system and other international organizations. Leadership gaps tend to be wider where data availability is lower and funding more constrained. Sustained investment in national statistical systems, transparent pathways to statistical leadership, and ensuring women's organisations and mechanisms shaping the priorities that determine what gets counted, are all needed.