From Haiti To Yemen, Women Pay The Price Of Shrinking Foreign Aid

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) Women and girls are at the forefront of aid cuts impacting reproductive healthcare for generations to come. Select your language

Generated with artificial intelligence. Listening: From Haiti to Yemen, women pay the price of shrinking foreign aid This content was published on November 3, 2026 - 09:01 10 minutes

Multimedia journalist reporting for the International Geneva beat and supporting editorial quality control in the English department. Swiss-Chilean multimedia journalist with two decades of reporting experience in the US, Europe and the Middle East, with occasional assignments in South America and Africa. I enjoy investigative and long-form stories, and have also worked in breaking news and every format in between.

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When women in Haiti asked where they could turn for help, Shoko Arakaki had no answer.

The director of the humanitarian response division at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) visited the Caribbean nation in July. There she witnessed the consequences of international aid cuts for survivors of sexual violence in a country where rape by armed gangs is widespread.

Women and girls were struggling to access emergency contraception and other essential medical care.“We have to just say, 'I'm sorry... we have to close.' And then when they ask, 'Where can we go?' we don't have an answer,” she told Swissinfo.

Haiti is far from an isolated case. From Afghanistan and Yemen to Sudan and Myanmar, funding shortages threaten reproductive healthcare and protection services for women and girls. UNFPA warns that between tento 12 million women and girls could lose access if funding gaps persist. As major donors scale back assistance, frontline organisations are forced to cut services and seek alternative sources of funding.

Without timely medical care, sexual violence survivors face the risk of unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections and life-altering complications. But Arakaki warns the consequences can extend far beyond the individual, affecting generations to come.

“There are long, long-term consequences,” she said back in Geneva.“In a lot of cases, she's kicked out of the family. So she doesn't even have an income, and she doesn't have any family or relatives to rely on. And so that population goes immediately into extreme poverty.”

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