Women's health is under attack – protecting it is the smart investment for everyone
As conflict, disaster and displacement rise globally and aid budgets shrink, one truth is becoming harder to ignore. Women and girls are losing access to basic health services, putting their lives at risk. And the starker reality is that the long-term impacts will be felt far beyond national borders.
Earlier this year, the United States withdrew over US$330 million in funding from UNFPA, the UN's sexual and reproductive health agency. A third of that cut directly affects countries in Asia and the Pacific, home to over 60 per cent of the global population and some of the world's most fragile humanitarian settings.
What impact is this having? In Afghanistan, 6.3 million people will lose access to essential health care, most of them women and girls, including lifesaving maternal health services. Hundreds of health centres operating in remote areas and mobile clinics are being forced to close. In Bangladesh, 600,000 people, including Rohingya refugees, will be cut off from safe childbirth, contraception and care for survivors of rape. Health workers are being laid off. Supplies are running out. Lives are at stake.
This is not just a funding gap. It is a collapse of global solidarity, and it is already reversing decades of progress on women's health and rights. The consequences will include rising maternal deaths, violence and growing instability in already fragile regions. This is the most serious funding crisis the international development system has ever faced.
Earlier this month, I met a young mother in Bamyan, Afghanistan, who had walked for hours in labour to reach a small rural clinic. One of the few still operational with UNFPA support. There was no ambulance, no doctor. The sole midwife operating the clinic told me, 'If I had left, a mother or baby would have died.' This is what's at risk when global funding disappears. Not just services but survival itself – particularly of the poorest and most vulnerable.
UNFPA provides a lifeline to women and girls. We train and pay the salaries of midwives in some of the most challenging places on earth. We supply life-saving medical kits, contraceptives and clinical equipment to overstretched hospitals and the hard-to-reach communities. These tools make survival possible. Today, those shipments and services are being halted.
Without supplies, health workers and midwives cannot save lives. Without funding, UNFPA cannot stay and deliver. We are well past the point of this simply being charity. It is common sense.
When women and girls can access healthcare, they are more likely to finish school, join the workforce and raise healthier families. Without these services, poverty deepens, gender inequality widens and health systems buckle under the strain.
There is also a strong economic case. Every £1 invested in family planning delivers more than £6 in returns, by reducing health costs, preventing unintended pregnancies, and boosting women's participation in the workforce. This aligns with one of the UK's key development priorities – to boost economic growth.
The UK has long been a global leader in health and development. Now, in the wake of the US withdrawal, that leadership is more critical than ever. As UNFPA's second-largest donor and a key supporter of our Supplies Partnership – which delivers modern contraceptives and maternal health supplies to the world's most underserved women and girls – the UK has helped prevent 89 million unintended pregnancies and 1.6 million child deaths since 2008. In 2024 alone, UK funding in Asia and the Pacific reached over two million women and girls, averting nearly 18,000 maternal deaths. For this, we are eternally grateful.
As defence spending grows, we should not necessarily consider that security and international aid are competing priorities. They are interconnected. Strengthening health systems is not just the right thing to do – it reduces the risk of future instability, forced migration and protracted humanitarian crises. History has taught us this lesson.
Protecting progress on women's health and rights, built over decades, is a smart investment. For global development, for long-term stability and for the UK's role in the world.
From conflict zones in Afghanistan to refugee camps in Bangladesh and displaced communities in Myanmar, the people we serve are not asking for pity. They are asking for partnership and the chance to live healthy, dignified lives.
This is not only about UNFPA. It is about the UK's role in shaping a changing world, where global cooperation is under pressure but also where smart investments in health and stability still offer the best return.
When women and girls thrive, families are healthier, communities are stronger and the world is safer – for us all. So let's defend that midwife. Let's defend the rights of all our youth. Let's defend the promise of hope.
Pio Smith is UNFPA Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific
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