UNFPA Yemen: Five ways funding cuts are catastrophic for women and girls in Yemen

In Yemen and across the Arab States region, a silent crisis is unfolding, casting a long shadow over the lives of millions of women and girls. Amid conflict, climate shocks, displacement, and economic hardship, vital reproductive health services and protection for survivors of gender-based violence are being dismantled due to funding cuts. The consequences are heartbreaking: mothers face childbirth without essential medical care, survivors of violence are left without support, and girls confront an increased risk of child marriage, exploitation, and abuse. 

1. Pregnancy and childbirth are ever more dangerous

Taghreed, 21, carried more than just her pregnancy—she bore the burden of survival. Married as a child, she spent her days fetching water, tending sheep, and managing her home. As her due date neared, her body weakened, and fear set in. She had no money for transportation and no health facility nearby.

As labor pains struck, instead of joy, she felt terror—something was wrong. A neighbor’s advice changed her fate, telling her about the free maternal health services at UNFPA-supported Mudhaykhirah Hospital in Ibb Governorate.

With her last strength, Taghreed made the three-hour journey. At the hospital, doctors diagnosed severe anemia—without urgent intervention, she and her baby might not survive. A blood transfusion and emergency care saved her life.

Then, a baby’s cry. She had survived. Holding her child, she vowed to tell every woman about the hospital.

"No mother should suffer in silence, thinking she is alone," she stated.

The odds of surviving pregnancy and childbirth in Yemen are stark with 1 woman dying every two hours from child birth or pregnancy related causes. Many health facilities depend on short-term humanitarian funding, rendering services unsustainable–only 1 in 5 functional health facilities provide maternal and child health services. 

As funding dwindles, pregnancy and childbirth will become ever more dangerous across the country. UNFPA has been forced to suspend its support to nearly 50 health facilities due to the lack of funding. This means pregnant women like Taghreed could face their most precious and precarious moments alone — without care, without safety, and without hope.

2. Life-saving services for survivors of violence disappear

Dina, 35, endured violence, abuse, and forced separation from her children. Emotionally shattered and financially struggling, she had no choice but to return to her overcrowded family home, where poverty made life even harder.

Determined to regain control, she sought job opportunities despite her limited education. Through a fellow survivor, she learned about a safe space for women and girls supported by UNFPA in Al Maharah Governorate.

At the safe space, she received psychological support that helped her heal from trauma and rebuild her self-worth. Recognizing her passion for sewing, she was selected for a 20-day sewing training course. She excelled, selling her work, and was later chosen for economic empowerment, receiving a sewing kit to launch her business.

Now, financially independent, Dina supports herself and her family. "I was once broken, but now I am independent, happy, and in control of my future," she says with pride.

These vital lifelines, however, are under severe threat. Funding cuts have forced the closure of 16 safe spaces and a specialized mental health centre, leaving survivors without psychosocial support and specialized care, and left to cope with the impacts of violence and abuse alone.

3. Midwifery shortages escalate

In Yemen, where six out of 10 births take place without a skilled birth attendant, the impact of midwifery shortages is profound. Naseem, a midwife, was driven to her profession after witnessing a difficult birth that left a mother paralyzed due to the lack of medical care in her remote village. “That scene shook me to my core,” she recalls. “I didn’t want any other woman to suffer due to the lack of proper care.” 

Investments in midwifery have led to a 65 percent reduction in maternal deaths at health facilities over the last eight years. Support for midwives, however, is now being cut, meaning an estimated half a million women will give birth without essential medical care, reversing hard-won gains. 

4. Health systems rebuilding stalled

Yemen’s healthcare system remains extremely stretched. Some 40 per cent of Yemen's health facilities are partially functioning or completely out of service due to shortages in staff, funding, electricity, medicines and equipment, leaving millions without adequate care.

Nearly 5 million women of childbearing age, including pregnant and lactating women, face challenges accessing reproductive health services, especially in rural and frontline districts, due to the non-availability of specialized female doctors and nurses, insufficient essential medical supplies, and limited access to services.

“I was afraid I wouldn’t survive my pregnancy, but the timely care I received at the health centre saved me and my baby,” tells Zainab, 28, from Al Khokha district.  

Zainab, pregnant with her fourth child, faced serious childbirth complications. The families’ impoverishment left her severely malnourished and anemic during her entire pregnancy, threatening her life and that of her newborn during childbirth.

Due to funding cuts, UNFPA has already had to withdraw vital support to health facilities and 14 mobile teams that reached women and girls in some of the remotest areas of Yemen, as well as midwives. Around 1.5 million women and girls have already lost access to life-saving services.  Broader reductions in aid could see more than 700 health centres close in the country and nearly 7 million people denied access to life-saving care.

5. Humanitarian assistance fails to reach women and girls in need

Souad, 45, and her seven children, who had been sheltering in a mud hut they built themselves – before the flash floods demolished it. “I was in shock – what’s left to be destroyed in my life?” she asked. They had already been displaced by conflict, and her husband recently died from kidney disease.

The rapid response team met with Souad’s family, as well. “I was surprised when the rapid response team came and provided us with these kits, I didn’t expect them to arrive so quickly.” 

“This gives me hope that our situation can improve,” Souad said upon receiving her RRM kit. 

The UN rapid response mechanism in Yemen led by UNFPA with financial support from the European Union and the Central Emergency Response Fund, ensures life-saving assistance within 72 hours of the onset of an emergency.  

Nearly 220,000 displaced persons have now lost access to lifesaving emergency relief from funding shortages, cutting off often the only means of relief for hundreds of thousands of displaced families in Yemen.

UNFPA's 2025 appeal for Yemen, at $70 million, has received only 36 percent of its target.