The 16 Days of Activism to End Violence Against Women runs from 25 November to 10 December, culminating on World Human Rights Day to underscore that violence against women is not only abhorrent – it is a fundamental human rights violation.
April Pham, Senior Gender Advisor at OCHA, explains how the Humanitarian Reset, supported by the OCHA-managed Humanitarian Funds, could help end impunity and shift power dynamics once and for all.
Violence against women is not incidental to crises – it is one of their defining features. In conflict zones, displacement camps and even supposed safe spaces, women and girls face daily threats to their dignity and security. Those with disabilities and adolescent girls face even greater risks.
Yet while gender-based violence in conflict is increasing, services to meet the demand remain underfunded. Defense budgets grow while peacebuilding funds shrink, and women’s rights continue to erode. Women’s civil society groups, including peacebuilders, are excluded from decision-making, attacked and underfunded.
Despite these challenges, women are powerful first responders. They mobilize protection and aid, negotiate access in war zones, mediate local conflicts, and help rebuild fractured societies – often with minimal support or recognition. Above all, they demand not sympathy but accountability, insisting that peace is not merely the absence of war but the presence of justice, safety and care.
Through the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) and Country-Based Pooled Funds (CBPFs), OCHA has supported gender-based violence prevention, safe spaces and survivor services. But the scale of need far outpaces available resources. Half of women-led organizations in conflict settings may shut down within six months due to global funding cuts. Without urgent investment, the infrastructure for protection and feminist peacebuilding risks collapse.
The Humanitarian Reset offers a chance to shift power and priorities. It calls for violence against women to be recognized not as collateral damage but as a systemic failure. It advocates predictable, multi-year funding for women-led organizations, survivor-centered approaches and feminist solutions that dismantle the patriarchal systems that sustain violence.
The system must not fail women and girls. It must protect their rights and strengthen their agency. The Humanitarian Reset provides the roadmap, and OCHA’s funds provide the mechanism. Now we must turn rhetoric into action.
