Supporting civil society and women’s rights organizations to end violence against women and girls in protracted, complex and overlapping crises

In the context of increasingly complex and intersecting forms of crises, whose compounded and cross-border impacts on violence against women and girls are still unfolding, support for civil society and women’s rights organizations (CSOs/WROs) throughout the humanitarian-development-peace nexus becomes more critical than ever. 

This scoping study commissioned by the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women (UN Trust Fund), explores how humanitarian action operates in increasingly overlapping, protracted and complex crises and how this intersects with violence against women and girls. It focuses on how humanitarian policy and coordination mechanisms, as well as humanitarian pooled funds and bilateral donors, support the localization agenda; and how CSOs/WROs are supported in responding to violence against women and girls in crisis settings. 

Among other things, the study: 

• finds that women-led organizations and WROs are frequently underfunded and overlooked by donors due to institutional priorities and a lack of direct, targeted local funding opportunities;
• illustrates how other UN organizations, partners and donors have responded to crises; 
• finds that “the UN Trust Fund can play a key role in supporting national/locally owned coordination and collaboration platforms for local women’s CSOs, fostering principled partnerships with larger organizations that can influence humanitarian work”; and 
• observes that “Most humanitarian funding mechanisms are short-term in nature, not responding to the current protracted, longer term complex humanitarian needs. The fact that the UN Trust Fund provides long-term, flexible and core funding to CSOs and WROs, makes it uniquely positioned to support CSOs and WROs/WLOs working in protracted crises.”