Abuja: 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.

According to African Press Organization, humanitarian actors are often asked to do more with less. As needs continue to grow and resources shrink, 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, 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.

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. Among adolescents, the disparity was even greater: girls represented more than 61 per cent of confirmed cases.

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. 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.

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. 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.

Across communities affected by conflict, women are helping prevent violence, resolve disputes, and rebuild trust. Their participation can change how communities respond to conflict and how peace is built. Recently, thirty women's organizations from Nigeria, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the DRC, Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, and Niger participated in a regional capacity-building workshop on women's leadership and engagement in humanitarian action.

Women-led organizations connect women and girls to protection and essential services, including in communities where humanitarian access is limited. But shrinking resources are threatening their work. Globally, UN Women's Beyond the Breaking Point report found that 77 per cent of surveyed women's organizations have lost staff because of funding cuts, while 45 per cent have six months or less of operational funding remaining. Women and girls are not only beneficiaries of aid; they are also essential actors in humanitarian response and peacebuilding within their communities.