Advancing Women’s Rights Amid US Aid Reductions

Women’s Rights and US Foreign Assistance

Advancing the women’s rights agenda has long been a core component of U.S. foreign policy, spanning key areas like health, economic participation, women’s leadership, and their role in peace and security. For over 50 years, the U.S. government’s development and diplomacy arms have supported women’s or gender-equality programs and projects in more than 80 countries worldwide, focusing on issues such as reproductive health, gender-based violence (GBV), economic participation, entrepreneurship, and political participation. This assistance provided funding as well as know-how and much needed expertise and technical assistance.

In a 2017 address at Georgetown University, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton articulated this shared American vision, stating, “It’s not only the right and moral goal for us to be pursuing ... this is strategic and necessary for matters of peace, prosperity and security. It is not a partisan issue. It’s a human issue. A rising tide of women’s rights lifts entire nations.” That vision captures America’s leadership and legacy on this issue.

This support is especially critical in volatile or conflict-prone settings, such as the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, which the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index (GGGI) ranks lowest in gender parity. The 2025 GGGI report captures much of the progress made across MENA, particularly in health and education, highlighting: declining maternal mortality rates, improvements in girls’ access to education (including tertiary), and women’s civil society initiatives working to reform discriminatory legislation. Donor support helped enable this progress, but recent U.S. policy shifts could pause or even reverse the gains already made.

In the first week of his second term, President Donald Trump announced U.S. aid cuts and the beginning of the dissolution of the 64-year-old United States Agency for International Development (USAID), halting most of these programs and causing significant disruption across development and humanitarian communities globally. Considered a foundational tool of U.S. foreign policy alongside diplomacy and defense, the development arm was severely impacted with the termination of 83% of USAID programs by March 2025 and the agency’s official closure and folding into the Department of State by July 2025. These abrupt aid cuts have already impacted humanitarian and development organizations worldwide, including in the MENA region.

Assessing the effects on women’s groups, organizations, and the individual girls and women benefiting from USAID funding, in key sectors (such as health and education) will take time and resources. Because recipients measure their projects and programs differently, there is no official count of women-focused nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) or programs in the MENA region. However, available survey findings and regional trends attest to the weakening — and in many cases the closure — of local organizations dedicated to women’s issues and projects that served women and girls, from Jordan and the Palestinian territories to Morocco and Yemen.

This policy brief examines the effect of the second Trump administration’s aid cuts on this important work, drawing on:

• Available UN reports.
• Policy briefs by development experts.
• Data gathered in the last six months.
• Interviews with experts from the development and humanitarian sectors.

The expert interviews were conducted via email or direct messaging with individuals who have worked on or continue to lead programs focused on achieving gender equality in the MENA region. These experts are from Jordan, Sudan, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco and the United States, and include:

• Fatemah Farag — founder and director of Welad Elbalad Media Services, an Egyptian media development company that offers capacity programs for women.
• Hala Bseiso — former minister of social development in Jordan; a development expert.
• Kehinde Ajayi — gender equality director at the Center for Global Development in Washington, D.C.
• Lina AbiRafeh — Arab American gender expert; founder of Better4Women.
• Lynn Mounzer — Lebanese gender equality expert.
• Rania Aziz — Sudanese activist and organizer.
• Safae El Yaaqoubi — Moroccan development expert.
• Sahar Aloul — founder of RAYA Solutions, a Jordanian provider of innovative, scalable care economy solutions.

This brief also offers policy recommendations for governments in the region and the private sectors in both the United States and the MENA region on continuing the important work of advancing the rights and roles of women.

Historical Leadership in Advancing Women’s Rights

In 1973, the Percy Amendment to the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act required that U.S. aid programs “encourage and promote the integration of women into the national economies in the developing countries.” A few years later, the Office of Women in Development was established at USAID, followed by a U.S. State Department directive in 1979 to all its missions that “a key objective of U.S. foreign policy is the advancement worldwide of the status and conditions of women,” cementing America’s vision of supporting the advancement of girls and women in both development and diplomacy; two of the principal components of its foreign policy toolbox.

The ensuing decades saw the United States deepen its engagement at international forums, including the fourth UN Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. The conference is known for Hillary Clinton, then first lady, and her enduring statement, “women’s rights are human rights,” which became a foundational tenet of American diplomacy. Beginning in 2000, the support provided by USAID and State Department for girls’ and women’s programs evolved through the establishment of key initiatives such as:

• Adoption of the women, peace and security (WPS) agenda following UN Security Council Resolution 1325 in 2000.
• Creation of the U.S.-Afghan Women’s Council in 2002 after the fall of the Taliban to support women’s education, health, and entrepreneurship.
• Launch in 2011 of the first American National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security that aimed to guarantee women’s equal involvement in efforts to prevent conflict and promote peace in nations facing war, violence, and instability.
• Establishment in 2019 of the Women’s Global Development and Prosperity (W-GDP) Initiative, placing emphasis on the economic integration of women and seeking to reach 50 million women in developing countries by 2025 through U.S. government programs, collaborations between the public and private sectors, and the creation of a new W-GDP Fund.

Additionally, various projects focused on health — with an emphasis on girls, women, and GBV — were launched, including the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a successful program that has benefited over 100 million girls and women worldwide through treatment, testing, prevention of transmission to babies, or prevention awareness.

A Legacy of Leadership in Women’s Empowerment

For over half a century, these legal and institutional initiatives established the U.S. as a global leader in advancing girls and women in sectors as varied as education, health, economic empowerment, political participation, security and peacebuilding, and most recently in climate action and technology. USAID and the European Union’s development agencies have been recognized “as key players in funding initiatives aimed at promoting gender equality and empowering women” worldwide. According to Donor Tracker figures from 2019–23, U.S. spending in this area was distributed as follows:

• The vast majority of funding ($5.5 billion) supported projects where gender equality was a significant objective.
• A much smaller share ($435 million) went to projects where it was the principal objective.

Further, in 2023, the U.S. administration committed $2.6 billion for USAID to spend on gender equality programs.

Although the impact cannot be measured precisely across decades of diverse programs, many humanitarian and development actors acknowledge that U.S. funds and support “have enabled countless NGOs to implement transformative programs that address pressing issues faced by women worldwide.”

In the realm of defense — the third arm of U.S. foreign policy — America’s leadership in the advancement of the Women in Peace and Security (WPS) agenda has set it apart from other major powers. Russia and China, by contrast, have not included robust WPS programming as part of their diplomacy and global engagement.

Focus on the MENA Region

USAID historically contributed a significant portion of its foreign aid funding to the MENA region, particularly areas experiencing conflict or crisis, such as Syria, Yemen, and, in the last two years, Gaza. At the heart of this bilateral and humanitarian aid has been a specific focus on girls and women through three main types of intervention: 1) implementing direct programming, 2) providing expertise on legal reforms that benefit them, and 3) distributing gender-sensitive aid.

Examples of USAID programs in the region include:

• Makanati, which aimed to address Jordan’s low female labor participation by focusing on interventions to increase “women’s access to waged employment and leadership opportunities.”
• A similar project in Egypt — the Women’s Economic and Social Empowerment Program (WESEP) — worked with the private sector and community leaders to increase formal employment for women, recognizing that many currently work in the informal sector without benefits.
• The Domestic Election Monitoring (DEMT) program in Tunisia aimed to enfranchise illiterate rural women, an important demographic given that 65% of Tunisian women living in rural areas leave school at an early age.
• The Cooperative Resilience Program in Morocco supported rural women by focusing on rural cooperatives and entrepreneurs, helping them increase their economic activities and build resilience to cope with climate change impacts, including water scarcity.
• Other regional projects, such as LEAP III, provided analytical tools to help partner governments and local civil society groups identify women’s empowerment challenges and build capacity through training and workshops on monitoring, evaluation, and program design.

Additionally, funding from the Department of State and USAID to refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) has been significant in the MENA region. Among Syrian refugees in host countries such as Jordan and Lebanon as well as IDPs in Syria, the majority of those receiving this aid have been women and children, who comprise more than 70% of these populations.

U.S. involvement in the MENA region has sometimes damaged its standing, notably during the 2003 Iraq invasion and most recently the Israel-Hamas war. Despite this, U.S. assistance and aid are generally viewed favorably. According to the Arab Barometer survey, “many citizens across the region actually favored an increase in aid from the U.S.” The aid’s impact on gender issues was noted in 2020–21 surveys, where more than 40% of respondents — Lebanon (48%), Tunisia (45%), and Jordan (43%) — agreed that “U.S. foreign assistance helps advance women’s rights.”

Impact of Aid Cuts on Girls and Women in MENA

The second Trump administration disrupted the humanitarian and development communities worldwide in January 2025 by issuing three main directives that fundamentally altered U.S. foreign policy, including:

1. Freezing and later cutting U.S. foreign aid.
2. Suspending over 80% of USAID programs and initiating the agency’s eventual closure.
3. Banning use of the term “gender” in all federal policies and documents.

Further in March 2025, the U.S. mission to the UN announced its rejection of Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals, adding that the United States “will no longer reaffirm them as a matter of course.” As a result, it appears that the U.S. no longer supports the fifth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) on achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls.

For many women’s rights and gender experts interviewed for this policy brief in the MENA region, these policy shifts had large impacts. According to Lina AbiRafeh, the shifts represent “the most seismic change this sector has experienced,” in more than 30 years.

Funding Gap

There is now a significant funding gap in the humanitarian and development sectors. Fatemah Farag explained that when the United States “withdrew, everyone realized how big a hole that created in the donor community in Egypt ... severely impacting the funding ecosystem across the board.”

This funding hole will likely “exacerbate gender gaps in wellbeing, given the disproportionate impacts of health shocks and humanitarian crises on women and girls,” according to Kehinde Ajayi. The data is still emerging on the exact number of women-focused NGOs that have been affected region-wide or the number of girls and women beneficiaries who have lost access to services. A key challenge moving forward is to accurately assess the impact and track the widening gender gaps resulting from the potential reduction of gender-disaggregated data due to the funding losses.

An April 2025 report published by UN Women, based on a survey of over 400 women-led and women’s rights organizations worldwide, highlights that 90% of these organizations are “being financially impacted, with 47% expecting to shut down within six months if current conditions persist.” Further, “over half (51%) have suspended programming” with “services in GBV response (67%), protection (62%), livelihoods and multipurpose cash assistance (58%), and healthcare (52%)” most affected. Of the organizations surveyed, 15% are in Arab countries of the MENA region including Jordan, Syria, Palestinian Territories, Yemen, and Lebanon.

Assessing the Impact in MENA

A February 2025 survey by Mobilizing for Rights Associates, a Rabat-based organization in Morocco, indicated that out of 37 of organizations surveyed, more than half had to cancel planned activities, a quarter could no longer pay staff, over one in five could not cover basic operational costs such as rent and utilities, and 11% had already laid off personnel. Further, according to Safae El Yaaqoubi, a significant number of these NGOs learned of the funding cuts informally, deepening what she referred to as the “operational uncertainty.”

In Tunisia, the abrupt suspension of USAID support jeopardized more than a decade of work on economic reform, small and medium enterprise growth, as well as regional development that is critical to the post-Jasmine revolution transition. While these projects were not labeled “women’s projects,” they opened space for women in markets and in the entrepreneurship ecosystem, local governance, and decision-making. The loss of this support will likely reverse the slow yet steady progress made in unlocking economic opportunities, especially for women, whose labor participation in the Tunisian economy low by global standards, at around 30%.

Cessation of U.S. programs in Libya has halted training and inclusion that aimed to integrate women into peace and local reconciliation efforts, especially in municipalities beyond Tripoli, for example in Local Peacebuilding and Development Committees, where women make up 40% of the members. The loss of funding for such efforts will likely increase the vulnerability of women and girls, particularly if further violence erupts, as it did in the summer of 2025.

Additionally, a preliminary assessment report by the Jordan INGO Forum revealed the swift scale of the cuts: 79 partnership agreements focused on various health services, across 26 NGOs, were affected in the first two weeks following the first Trump administration directive. Hala Bseiso noted that there is “serious damage to the livelihoods and stability of many families and individuals, both those directly employed in U.S.-funded programs and the thousands of women, youth, and vulnerable groups who rely on these services for income.” 

Understanding the Impact on GBV in MENA

According to a survey conducted by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, GBV is now “globally the second most affected humanitarian cluster by funding reductions” after health. In many Arab countries, especially those in active conflict such as Yemen, the Palestinian Territories namely in Gaza, and Syria, the risks of GBV are on the rise.

A report by UNFPA, published in May 2025, reveals that:

• Half of the Women and Girls Safe Spaces (WGSS) in Yemen have closed due to funding cuts — these centers had reached over 623,000 women and girls in 2024, with almost 2 million people now at risk of GBV without these safe spaces.
• In Sudan, 40 out of 99 GBV centers had shut down by the report’s publication date May 2025, “cutting off services for 1 million women and girls in the most severely impacted areas.” Rania Aziz noted that GBV is on the rise in Sudan, adding that its impact is felt by girls and women in Sudan as well as by Sudanese refugees living in host countries where GBV and health services have halted.
• In Lebanon, there are now 53 operational safe spaces for women and girls — down from 67 — “affecting 30,240 women and girls, with another dozen facilities on the verge of closure.”
• In Gaza, where more than 28,000 women and girls have been killed since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war in 2023, the GBV infrastructure has collapsed with 15 spaces closing and other health facilities suspending their services to rape victims.

The report notes that while these closures are the direct result of U.S. aid cuts and their impact on the wider donor community, the challenge is more than a funding issue. Rather, the report calls this as a “fundamental protection crisis” in a region marked by active conflicts and scarce alternative resources for such programs.

Global Implications for Gender Equality in MENA

Beyond the shrinking of the women’s rights space in the MENA region, a key ripple effect mentioned by most of the experts interviewed is the growing “lack of trust in the U.S. as a reliable partner,” as Jordanian development expert Bseiso put it.

The abrupt nature of the aid cuts is likely to influence how local partners in the region engage with the United States should future funding opportunities arise. There may be some hesitation in fully embracing the U.S. or trusting its policies.

As one expert noted, the absence of the U.S. at the development and humanitarian table — particularly in women’s rights and empowerment programing — further “reduces the strategic weight of U.S. aid in the region and leaves a vacuum for other actors.” One potential actor is China. To date, it has avoided the MENA region but China Aid has reportedly shown interest through to fill in the vacuum elsewhere in Asia. However, China’s goals may not align with those of the many domestic and international NGOs working in this field.

According to experts interviewed for this brief, in certain policy circles in Brussels, the loss of U.S. programming in North Africa is seen both as a challenge and as an opening for the EU to assert a stronger role in the region’s development agenda. Yet it is also clear that the EU cannot fully bridge the gap.

Further, as El Yaaqoubi noted, the sector also lost “technical support, training, and the partnerships that connected NGOs to both government agencies and international networks.” It is not just about losing the funds.

Another unfortunate effect is that as the United States steps back, “there is less political energy to actually implement reforms or fund women-focused work,” in the region, noted Lynn Mounzer. “The space for women’s rights groups is shrinking fast,” she cautioned.

Rethinking Funding, Activating Localization

Many NGOs in the region are already rethinking how to move past U.S. assistance and funding, and even beyond donor aid in general. While some are redistributing the risk in their funding strategies, others are designing creative funding approaches that “rely less and less on donors,” noted Sahar Aloul.

AbiRafeh strongly believed that this new reality was “an opportunity for true localization across the region.” She explained that this could be a “painful but long overdue lesson for the region to seek support from our own rather than remain dependent on foreign donors.” Mounzer also saw an opportunity to engage local and regional foundations, the private sector and diaspora communities, which in the case of Lebanon has proven to be impactful, especially in times of crisis.

Egypt’s Farag also added that there has to be a “culture shift in the donor community,” requiring new ideas, new thinking and a reboot of the relationship between grantors and grantees. Bseiso took it a step farther, urging the government in her country, Jordan, to redefine its “national definitions and agendas on women’s empowerment — grounded in local context — without interventions and influences from the West.”

Barriers to localization in the MENA region start with the lack of availability of domestic funding in resource-scarce countries. A number of factors contribute, including low tax mobilization relative to the size of the MENA region’s economies, which limits domestic finance, and complex local regulatory and registration requirements for NGOs. Further, while philanthropy is part of the MENA culture, it is widely understood through the lens of Islamic giving (zakat and sadaqa) and has not yet evolved to support projects in a sustainable manner.

Recommendations for Advancing Women’s Rights

The latest U.S. aid cuts and the suspension of more than 80% of USAID’s programs have moved the United States from a position of global leadership on women’s rights and empowerment to the sidelines, impacting hundreds of NGOs dedicated to the protection, advancement, and empowerment of girls and women. The data needed to measure the full impact of these cuts — on both the humanitarian and development entities and the girls and women they served — is still emerging, particularly in conflict-affected regions such as MENA.

The following key recommendations are designed to guide women-led or -focused NGOs and intergovernmental partners in sustaining the vital programs previously supported by U.S. funding:

• Increase coordination and cross-pollination among the remaining international donors to avoid redundancies and ensure continuing funding for all local organizations and programs.
• Mobilize local foundations, philanthropists, and the private sector, especially in the resource-rich Gulf Cooperation Council countries, to invest in these programs and ensure their long-term sustainability.
• Engage diaspora networks, not just for funding, but also for expert and knowledge transfers, including technical support in areas where the MENA region currently lacks capacity.
• Encourage regional development banks — including the Islamic Development Bank, the Arab Monetary Fund, and the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development — to include programing that advances gender equality in the sectors they support.
• Reframe the conversation on supporting girls and women to focus on investments, smart economics, and smart solutions. This approach elevates gender equality as a pathway to boosting the economy — a key objective for many MENA countries — and requires engaging local civil society organizations and regional media to drive this effort.

This publication was produced on behalf of Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. Wherever feasible, the material was reviewed by external experts prior to its release. Any errors are the responsibility of the author(s) alone.

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