By: Agnes Miriam
As we commemorate International Women's Day this year with the theme "Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress," it is imperative to acknowledge the proactive role that women play in shaping their future. The need to give priority to responding to gender disparities and violence against women and girls is growing. This means that governments must finance measures that take gender equality into account and implement laws and policies that prioritize social protection and other necessities.
Between 2012 and 2013, USD 4 billion annually on average, or 5% of aid screened against the DAC gender marker, was directed towards gender equality as a primary goal. In contrast, gender equality was the secondary goal of USD 22 billion, or 25%. When combined, these figures indicate that just 30% of help is tailored to the needs and interests of women. While aid for gender equality reached USD 28 billion in 2012–13, the average annual funding for women's civil society organizations and institutions was less than USD 400 million. Women's equality organizations and institutions received a mere 1% of all aid aimed at promoting gender equality in unstable states. However, initiatives to promote state-building and peace are frequently led by women's organizations.
Only 0.42% of foundation grants are allocated towards women’s rights. 0.13% of the total Official Development Assistance (ODA) is allocated to Women’s Rights Organisations(WROs). As of 2017-2018, ODA totalled $153 billion of which, $198 million was given to WROs and 0.4% of all aid associated with all gender-related aid. Four out of every five (48%) of the Global South feminist and women’s rights organizations that filed a profile with the GFW between 2015 and 2019 stated that their most recent fiscal year budget was less than $30,000. Merely two out of every six groups have budgets above $1 million, and only 65 had recent FY budgets over $300,000. Women’s rights organizations had an average budget of just $20,000, 50% of them had never gotten core financing, 50% had never received multi-year funding, and 98% of them had not raised all their funds for the upcoming year. A significant amount of aid cash earmarked for the Global South ultimately remains in the Global North. Development money anticipated to return to donor countries exceeds $24 billion.
A UN report shows that women and girls are not receiving nearly enough medical and non-medical support when dealing with gender-based violence. Globally, nations provided $204 billion in foreign development aid in 2022, of that substantial amount, just one-fifth (0.2%) was allocated to the prevention of gender-based violence. In the meantime, government organizations or huge aid groups received 98% of that funding. The decline in funding or lack of it has immense catastrophic effects on ending gender-based violence as responders lack training funds contributing to low-quality service provision for survivors of violence in medical care and the care provided may not include all the essential services prescribed. Gender-based violence prevention is not at the top of donors’ priority list when it comes to ODA spending. In 2021, $14.38 billion was spent on health, $10.12 billion on education, $1.84 billion on social protection and $4.14 billion on environmental protection in aid and development. Although ODA has increased generally over the past five years, an OECD analysis shows that support for GBV has decreased by 13% between 2018–2019 ($581 million) and 2020–2021 ($458 million).
International Women's Day highlights the significant role women play in shaping their future. However, only 30% of aid is tailored to women's needs and interests. Women's rights receive only 0.42% of foundation donations and 0.13% of the total Official Development Assistance (ODA) is allocated to Women's Rights Organisations (WROs). Meeting out gender equality goals means this must change fast. Accelerating progress towards generation equality and economic stability means that women and feminist changemakers must be well-supported financially.