Six months since the United States Government terminated most funding to United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), nearly 17 million people around the world – most of them women and girls – risk losing access to health and protection services.
In Yemen, Due to the steep funding cuts, UNFPA had to suspend its support at the end of March 2025 and appealed for $70 million which is so far just one third funded.
Before March UNFPA had supported many hospital around the country, and one of it was a hospital in Ku'aydinah District, northwestern Hajjah Governorate, by providing maternal health medicines, medical supplies and deploying health workers such as midwives and other specialists.
But recently when pregnant women arrive almost unconscious, the obstetrician was no longer working there.
Around 2.7 million women and girls in Yemen don’t have access to reproductive healthcare, and six out of ten births take place without a skilled attendant.
Now, many facilities that provided reproductive healthcare, mental health services and family planning have been forced to shut down, often with tragic consequences.
More than 1,000 health workers and 400 people working at women and girls’ safe spaces have lost their jobs or financial compensation. Funding cuts to UNFPA have led to the closure of 44 health facilities, 10 safe spaces, one mental health centre, and 14 mobile reproductive health and protection teams.
In rural and marginalized areas like Al-Ma’afir, Taiz governorate, these spaces are lifelines not only for women seeking refuge, but also for the staff whose livelihoods and dignity depend on them.
The agency will also no longer be able to provide training for some 800 midwives – more than half of the midwives UNFPA had planned to support in 2025.