Widows of all ages: hidden victims of Humanitarian Aid Cuts
By Jordan Taylor – Student Researcher for Widows for Peace through Democracy. August 2026.
Humanitarian funding cuts are usually from the broader lens of “women and girls” as a single group. That framing risks concealing groups whose needs arise from particular social and legal conditions.
Widows are one such group. In March 2025, UN Women surveyed 411 women-led and women’s rights organisations across 44 humanitarian settings: 90 per cent reported being financially affected by aid reductions and 47 per cent expected to close within six months if conditions continued. The services at risk include safe spaces, legal assistance, protection from gender-based violence and livelihood support. Widows are especially exposed to their disappearance, particularly given the incredibly unique support required for widows.
Widowhood can involve far more than bereavement, and often removes the widow’s claim to housing, land, pensions or family property. UN Women has identified poverty, discriminatory inheritance practices, social exclusion and violence as recurring features of widowhood across different regions. The risk posed to widows is not uniform and is dependent on a variety of socio-economic characteristics. Nevertheless, the combination is distinctive. Widows often experience bereavement at the same moment that her husband’s relatives challenge her right to remain in the family home.
Emergency relief cannot be separated from legal and social protection. Fraser and Nwadinobi describe property theft, widow “inheritance”, community expulsion, accusations of witchcraft and coercive “sexual cleansing” practices, while emphasising that prevalence remains poorly documented. Their report also shows that shelters serve as more than temporary accommodation. They can provide medical care, counselling, education, training and legal services, while local widow-led organisations may connect women to longer-term economic support. These services form an interdependent safety net. A widow evicted after her husband’s death may first need emergency shelter, then assistance obtaining death or marriage documents, legal representation to recover property, and cash or food support while the dispute continues. Cutting one element can make the others ineffective.
Research from Zimbabwe demonstrates the practical importance of that support. Human Rights Watch interviewed 59 widows and found that at least two-thirds had experienced in-laws taking control of their homes or property. Widows seeking to challenge these decisions are then faced with court fees, long journeys to government offices and difficulties proving unregistered customary marriages, sometimes through evidence controlled by the very relatives seeking the property. Almost all the widows who successfully recovered property had received assistance from non-governmental organisations. Thus, women-led organisations are inherently interconnected with basic humanitarian security. Without affordable advice and representation, many widows are faced with homelessness, loss of income or intimidation.
The statistical invisibility of widows
The present funding crisis threatens the support widows can receive. UN Women found that 62 per cent of surveyed organisations had reduced services and 51 per cent had suspended or terminated programmes. Safe spaces and livelihood programmes were disappearing as protection services were scaled back.
However, the effect on widows remains difficult to quantify because humanitarian systems commonly record them under broader categories such as female-headed households, older women, displaced persons or survivors of gender-based violence. Those classifications may be accurate, but they do not reveal whether widowhood caused or intensified the loss of income, housing or protection.
Absence of data can be mistaken for absence of need
This statistical invisibility has practical consequences.
If funders cannot identify how many widows use a shelter, legal clinic or cash programme, widow-focused protection may appear peripheral rather than essential. The absence of data can therefore be mistaken for an absence of need. Better disaggregation by marital status, where safe and relevant, should be accompanied by consultation with widow-led and local women-led organisations. Funding should also protect legal aid alongside food, healthcare and emergency accommodation.
UN Women’s call for direct, flexible and multi-year support is especially important because local organisations often possess the community knowledge and trust needed to help widows navigate customary practices and challenging decisions.
Widows are the hidden victims of aid cuts not because their suffering is unknown within their communities, but because humanitarian systems rarely identify widowhood as a distinct source of vulnerability. When shelters close, legal projects end and emergency support is withdrawn, the consequences are recorded as general harm to women and girls. Unless widows are counted and heard, funding decisions will continue to overlook how the loss of these connected services threatens their homes, safety, property and ability to rebuild their lives.
References
- United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, At a Breaking Point: The Impact of Foreign Aid Cuts on Women’s Organizations in Humanitarian Crises Worldwide – UN Women (2025) 3, 10;
- United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, ‘Explainer: What You Should Know About Widowhood’ (21 June 2021);
- Erika Fraser and Eleanor Nwadinobi, Harmful Cultural Practices towards Widows – UKaid (VAWG Helpdesk Research Report No 196, 31 August 2018);
- Human Rights Watch, “You Will Get Nothing”: Violations of Property and Inheritance Rights of Widows in Zimbabwe (2017) 3–4, 7.
Jordan Taylor is a law student at BPP University and works within legal practice, with experience in legal research and a range of civil and property matters.
His wider interests include human rights, access to justice, and the ways in which law and policy affect individuals and communities in practice. He hopes to qualify as a solicitor and has a particular interest in how legal systems can respond to inequality and protect the rights of those who may face social, economic or institutional disadvantage.
Also Read:
Widows for Peace through Democracy CSW67 Parallel Event, with Co-Sponsor: Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP)
Invisible Widows – emerging from the shadows? #CSW66