From Crisis to Recovery: How African Women Are Rebuilding Communities

Across West and Central Africa, conflict, displacement, disease outbreaks and hunger are disrupting millions of lives. Women and girls often face greater risks of violence, loss of livelihoods and reduced access to health care, protection and other essential services.

Nearly 55 million people across the region are projected to face acute food insecurity this year. Crises in the Central Sahel, north-east Nigeria, the Central African Republic and eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo remain severely underfunded, putting greater pressure on humanitarian workers and local organizations.

This World Humanitarian Day, five areas show how humanitarian workers and women-led organizations are protecting women and helping communities recover. Five key ways humanitarian workers and women-led organizations are responding:

• Ensuring neglected crises do not mean neglected women and girls: Humanitarian workers are keeping women's needs, rights and voices visible despite funding shortages and rising humanitarian needs.

• Delivering protection shaped around women's realities: Support addresses risks such as gender-based violence, displacement, limited health services and increased caregiving responsibilities.

• Helping women rebuild their lives with dignity: Education, skills training and livelihood support are helping displaced women regain income and greater independence.

• Supporting women to prevent violence and build peace: Women are participating in peace committees, community dialogue and conflict prevention to resolve disputes and rebuild trust.

• Strengthening women-led organizations on the frontlines: Local organizations connect women and girls with essential services, particularly in communities that are difficult for larger humanitarian agencies to reach.

Funding shortages put essential support at risk

Women and children, particularly girls, account for around 83 per cent of people requiring humanitarian assistance in north-east Nigeria, according to a UN Women evaluation. Their needs are growing at a time when organizations working directly with women are struggling to maintain services.

UN Women's 2026 Beyond the Breaking Point report found that 84 per cent of surveyed women-led and women's rights organizations are seeing more women and girls seeking support, while 88 per cent said their capacity falls below current needs. Reduced funding can mean fewer protection services and livelihood opportunities for communities already living through prolonged crises.

Protection must reflect what women and girls experience

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 as of 7 June. Among adolescents, girls represented more than 61 per cent of confirmed cases, reflecting the different ways health emergencies can affect women and girls.

Conflict creates additional dangers. Women and girls represented 96 per cent of 42,846 reported gender-based violence cases recorded in the Central African Republic between 2023 and 2025. In Mali, 2.5 million people require support related to gender-based violence, while reported cases in parts of Timbuktu increased by 77 per cent in early 2026.

Working with local women and community organizations gives humanitarian teams a clearer understanding of these risks and helps ensure protection services respond to people's actual experiences.

Rebuilding lives means restoring independence

For displaced women, reaching safety does not automatically restore the life they lost. Many need shelter, income opportunities, education and skills that allow them to support their families and regain control over their future.

In Mali, a woman identified as H.Y. recalled washing clothes, pounding millet and selling wild herbs to provide for her children before receiving project assistance. She later described having a physical shelter as finding "a shelter of dignity, a shelter of peace."

In Cameroon, thousands of refugees, internally displaced women and returnees have accessed learning opportunities through UN Women's Second Chance Education programme since 2019. Education, vocational training and pathways to employment or entrepreneurship are giving women opportunities to earn an income and rebuild their independence.

Women-led organizations are helping communities build peace

Women are also working as peacebuilders in communities affected by conflict. Thirty women's organizations from Nigeria, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the DRC, Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad and Niger recently participated in regional capacity-building focused on women's leadership in humanitarian action.

In Tanganyika, women from Twa and Bantu communities have worked through Village Peace Committees and inclusive peace mechanisms to rebuild trust and reduce violence. In the DRC, 205 women-led organizations also participated in a session focused on the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola virus disease, strengthening the inclusion of gender perspectives in emergency response.

The future of this work remains closely tied to funding. UN Women reports that 77 per cent of surveyed women's organizations globally have lost staff because of funding cuts, while 45 per cent have six months or less of operational funding remaining.

World Humanitarian Day highlights why protecting women and girls cannot be separated from supporting their leadership. Women are rebuilding livelihoods, preventing violence and strengthening peace within their communities, while women-led organizations are helping make sure humanitarian assistance reaches those who need it most.