At a moment of shrinking aid budgets and increasing conflict and displacement crises, Women for Women International co-hosted an event at the 70th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70) with the UN Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund, UN Women, UNHCR, UNFPA, Action Network on Forced Displacement, African Development Bank, and the governments of Germany, the United Kingdom, and Australia to explore how localizing finance can strengthen access to justice by directly channeling flexible funds to local organizations working in conflict and displacement settings.
During the first week of CSW70, I had the chance to speak at an event among women civil society leaders and peacebuilders, as well as institutional and governmental allies, to showcase what becomes possible when women are truly trusted and resourced as partners and leaders for peace and justice in their communities.
I heard powerful examples of women responding to crisis, supporting survivors of war and gender-based violence, and advancing justice amid conflict. The message is clear. Local women’s organizations are often the first to respond and the ones communities rely on most when institutions fail or systems collapse. Yet too often they remain the last to be funded.
At Women for Women International, this reality is precisely why we created our Conflict Response Fund. When conflicts erupt or escalate, women need support immediately. But traditional funding systems are rarely designed to move at the pace crises demand or to be accessible to the local women’s organizations leading the response on the front lines.
Since launching the Fund in 2018, we have been able to respond rapidly to emerging crises by partnering with trusted local organizations and investing directly in women and women-led organizations on the frontlines. Through flexible, responsive grants, we can quickly channel resources to meet urgent needs and support the organizations most deeply embedded in their communities in providing essential services that provide pathways to justice, recovery, and resilience for women. These include safe spaces where women can gather and rebuild community; trauma-informed counseling and protection services for survivors of gender-based violence; and education and livelihood opportunities that help women rebuild economic stability and independence after displacement and conflict.
But rapid response alone is not enough. Advancing justice for women and girls in conflict and displacement settings depends on strong ecosystems of organizations, networks, and coalitions working together over the long term. That is why we also invest in sustained partnerships and movement-building that strengthen women’s leadership and collective advocacy.
Partnerships with institutions and governments are equally critical. Civil society organizations and international NGOs cannot do this work alone.
Women for Women International is proud to serve as one of four civil society members on the Global Steering Committee of the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund (WPHF). What makes WPHF unique is its multi-stakeholder governance model, which brings together governments, UN agencies, and civil society to guide the allocation of funding and the processes by which it reaches women’s organizations on the frontlines of conflict and crisis. This kind of partnership helps ensure that financing systems are more inclusive, responsive, and grounded in the realities women face—and it offers an important model for how global funding mechanisms can work differently.
Another example of what meaningful partnerships can achieve comes from Iraq. Through the NISAAM program, supported by the UK government’s Integrated Security Fund, Women for Women International works with 34 women-led and women’s rights organizations across Federal Iraq and the Kurdistan Region. The program provides flexible funding, institutional support, and networking opportunities while strengthening coordination between civil society and government actors responsible for implementing Iraq’s National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security.
In practice, this collaboration has meant that women’s organizations have worked alongside ministries, community police, and women’s affairs directorates to strengthen responses to gender-based violence, improve survivor referral systems, and support more gender-responsive security governance. It has also meant supporting women candidates and activists with training on political participation and digital safety as they navigate rising online harassment and other forms of political violence that often precede wider instability.
These partnerships show what becomes possible when international actors provide sustained and flexible support to local women’s organizations working on the frontlines of peace, equality, and justice.
Yet at this very moment, we are seeing troubling trends in global financing.
Many governments are increasing military spending while reducing investments in gender equality and peacebuilding. As some say, “In reality, this is defunding peace and calling it security.” Military spending alone cannot deliver the stability and peace that the world urgently needs.
Shifts in financing priorities across the international system risk sidelining gender equality unless there is a strong collective commitment to protect the investments and leadership that have long advanced women’s rights. Reducing funding for women’s leadership and women-led organizations would be devastating not only for gender equality but also for our broader stability and security goals. This is particularly concerning at a moment when conflicts and displacement are intensifying around the world.
If financing is truly meant to reach the women and grassroots organizations working on the frontlines of conflict and displacement, and truly achieve peace and justice for all, several shifts are urgently needed.
First, funding for gender equality and women’s leadership must be protected and redesigned to ensure it actually reaches local organizations.
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Governments and multilateral institutions should maintain dedicated funding streams for Women, Peace and Security programming rather than allowing these resources to disappear within broader security or humanitarian budgets.
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Application processes must also be simplified and accessible to grassroots organizations.
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Predictable multi-year funding is equally critical to allow women’s organizations to adapt quickly to crises and sustain support for survivors.
Second, donors should invest in the movements and networks that sustain women’s leadership. Local women’s organizations do not operate in isolation. Their impact depends on coalitions, partnerships, and collective advocacy that allow them to influence national policies and hold institutions accountable. Yet this type of movement-building work is often underfunded despite being essential to long-term change.
Third, as governments increase spending on security and stabilization, these investments must integrate a gender and conflict-prevention lens. Security responses should reinforce rather than undermine commitments to women’s participation, protection, and leadership in peacebuilding.
Ultimately, these shifts are not simply about improving funding mechanisms. They are about recognizing women’s organizations as essential partners in building peace, justice, and stability in some of the world’s most challenging environments.
Women living through war and displacement are tired of marking anniversaries of global policy commitments alongside anniversaries of the latest outbreak of violence.
This moment demands a transformation. A transformation that invests in and enables peace actors rather than warring actors. A transformation that advances the future that women envision: not simply the end of the current crisis, but a world built on justice, equality, and lasting peace.
