15/05/2025
✨How Can We Keep Going Amid Global Funding Cuts and Backlash?
Across the globe, Women’s Specialist Services are feeling the weight of shrinking funds and increasing resistance. These challenges make it harder every day to keep vital support systems running for women and girls in need.
That’s why it’s so important to share these stories—to shine a light on the struggles, the strength, and the unwavering commitment of those on the front lines.
We warmly invite you to read the inspiring story of AMKAS Nepal, an organization that continues to stand tall in the face of adversity.
Let’s lift each other up and raise our voices together. We are stronger when we stand united.
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How Global Funding Cuts and Backlash Hit Women’s Specialist Services Around the World
By AMKAS Nepal
Across the world, women’s rights organizations are facing a tough and uncertain time. From Latin America to South Asia, funding for women’s shelters and support services is shrinking. Political backlash is growing. And the most affected are those who are already the most vulnerable—women escaping violence, discrimination, and exploitation. Recent media reports from the United States highlight that 34 USAID-supported projects in Nepal, valued at approximately Rs46.12 billion (around $329 million), have been permanently discontinued—posing a serious challenge to the country’s ongoing development efforts. (Giri, 2025) Furthermore, hospitals that provide care under the 'Safe Motherhood' project have been asked to pay Rs380 million immediately by the Department of Health and Services' Family Welfare Division in Nepal.
At AMKAS Nepal, we have felt this deeply.
Aaprabasi Mahila Kamdar Samuha (AMKAS) Nepal has been supporting Nepali women migrant workers—especially those returning from the Gulf countries facing severe problems such as wage theft, forced labor, abuse, and deep psychological trauma since its establishment. Our emergency shelter is a safe space where women can recover, rest, and begin to rebuild. We provide free accommodation, food, medical checkups, legal support, psychosocial counseling, family reunification and reintegration support. Most return undocumented, traumatized without legal and social protection. But with major global donors like USAID pulling out of Nepal, everything has changed.
Our ability to continue this work is under threat. Since the end of our most recent project, supported by Women’s Fund Asia, in February 2025, AMKAS-Nepal has had no active donor funding. Despite extensive outreach, have not been able to secure new financial support. Without project-based funding, our shelter is running on minimum resources. We've cut back on staff, stretched every rupee for essentials, and continue to serve women because we know there’s nowhere else, they can go.
The impact is heartbreaking. We’ve seen an increase in women needing support, but fewer resources to help them. Many come home from years of domestic work abroad, unpaid and traumatized, with no family support. Some are survivors of trafficking and modern-day slavery. Others are young mothers. Without safe shelter, they face re-victimization and stigma back home.
This funding crisis is not just financial—it’s political.
The problem goes beyond funding. Policymakers have been slow—and in some cases unwilling—to act. Nepal’s long-standing ban on domestic workers migrating to the Gulf remains in place, despite mounting evidence that it pushes women into irregular and dangerous migration routes. Many of the women we shelter had no legal option to work abroad, and ended up in exploitative situations without any labor protections or legal recourse.
AMKAS Nepal has been campaigning for the ratification of the ILO Convention 189 and 190, which would recognize and protect the rights of domestic workers and address violence and harassment in the world of work. Despite repeated calls, coordination, and outreach, there has been little to no progress from policymakers. The lack of political will is not only disheartening—it’s dangerous. It leaves women vulnerable, invisible, and unsupported by the very systems meant to protect them.
The shrinking space for women’s rights work is not just a Nepal issue—it’s a global one. Across regions, we’ve seen a rollback in support for gender-based violence programs. Donors are leaving, Governments are failing to step in. And feminist organizations are expected to carry the burden without resources, protection, or recognition.
For grassroots organizations like ours, the situation is critical. Shelters are not optional services—they are lifelines. Without them, women returning from abuse only to face stigma, homelessness, and re-exploitation. A safe place to sleep, a warm meal, counseling, and legal advice—these are not luxuries. They are the bare minimum for recovery and justice.
Despite all this, we continue.
We’re finding new ways to survive—local fundraising, community partnerships, and volunteer support are now our short-term fixes. We need long-term, flexible support to continue offering life-saving services.
We urgently call on international donors and allies to stand with us:
Restore and protect long-term, flexible funding for grassroots women’s organizations.
Support shelters and services specifically for migrant and trafficked women.
Ensure smoother transitions when large-scale programs close, so that services don’t just disappear overnight.
Uplift women’s voices and leadership in global advocacy spaces.
If we allow the current backlash and funding crisis to continue, we risk undoing decades of progress. The cost will not be measured in reports—it will be measured in the lives of women left without safety, without justice, and without hope.
We urge funders and partners to see this moment not as a time to retreat—but as a time to recommit to feminist, rights-based work. Every contribution makes a difference.
Let’s keep our shelters standing. Let’s keep women safe with equal rights.
