Women and girls around the world need help from the UK – not just words of encouragement

It is no understatement to say that the government’s brutal aid cuts come at the worst possible time for women and girls around the world.

As the aid sector gets to grips with the allocations for Overseas Development Assistance (ODA), conflict is on the rise and it is frequently women and girls bearing the brunt. The International Development Committee recently heard that Sudan is “hell on earth” for women and girls today, while the UN found that conflict-related sexual violence increased by 87 per cent between 2022 and 2024.

Against this backdrop, the UN’s Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda helps to protect women and girls caught in the chaos of war by recognising that women’s equal participation is essential for sustainable peace.

The good news here is that the UK has historically played a leading role as a supporter of the WPS agenda. We were one of the first countries to implement a National Action Plan (NAP) and we continue to hold the responsibility of penholder for WPS and convenor at the UN Security Council.

Unfortunately, not everyone has stayed the course. In recent years, we have seen a global anti-gender movement and backsliding on the rights of women and girls. But while the Trump administration last year deprioritised the Pentagon’s WPS programme, the UK has thankfully shown no signs of a similar retreat.

“The UK remains steadfast in our commitment to advancing the Women, Peace and Security agenda globally,” the UK ambassador to the General Assembly told the UN Security Council last year.

The international development minister, Jenny Chapman, has echoed this – while Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said last year that she was putting tackling violence against women and girls “at the heart of our foreign policy”. The end of 2025 also saw the publication of the government’s strategy to combat violence against women and girls (VAWG), with the Safeguarding Minister declaring that “ending violence against women and girls is the work of us all”.

However, it is getting increasingly hard to square the encouraging rhetoric we have heard on this side of the pond with the reality of what is happening on the ground. As the International Development Committee’s latest report makes clear, the full picture is that our commitments to the WPS agenda on the international stage have not been upheld.

As President of the UN Security Council earlier this year, the UK did not convene a single dedicated session on WPS and the government has failed to deliver on NAP policy commitments relating to the inclusion of women, girls and marginalised groups. This work has already been hindered by cutting development and gender expertise at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and it only looks set to get worse with the department’s door seemingly still open to a further reduction.

Most starkly, the brutal aid cuts we have seen from successive governments are already set to massively impact many programmes and initiatives aimed at women and girls. At risk are programmes tackling domestic violence, access to contraception and the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative launched by former foreign secretary William Hague with Angelina Jolie.

As a result of the first round of ODA cuts from 0.7 per cent to 0.5 per cent of Gross National Income (GNI), an estimated 20 million women and girls will no longer benefit from UK-funded programming. But as we get the detail of the latest aid cuts to 0.3 per cent of GNI, the full impact on women and girls is yet to come.

If the UK is really steadfast in our commitment to advancing the WPS agenda globally then we need to show it. After talking the talk, it’s now time to walk the walk and the IDC’s report sets out where we should start.

In short, we need to see ministers backing up their rhetoric with substantive action and adequate funding. The UK should use its clout on the international stage to strengthen the implementation of the WPS agenda. At the same time, the FCDO must commit to maintaining development and gender experts with vital connections around the world.

With conflict on the rise around the world, and women and girls frequently bearing the brunt, advancing the WPS agenda could not be more critical. If we shift gear now, we could fill what is a fast-emerging gap in WPS leadership. If we keep standing still, we risk making all the right noises about supporting women and girls whilst hard-won gains are lost and gender equality becomes a footnote in UK diplomacy.

Sarah Champion is chair of the House of Commons’ International Development Committee and Labour MP for Rotherham

This article has been produced as part of The Independent’s Rethinking Global Aid project