Today is the final day of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, an annual global campaign uniting individuals and institutions in their call for the prevention and elimination of violence against women and girls.
WRC’s decades of research shows that refugee women and girls are among the populations most vulnerable to sexual and gender-based violence. Yet our research has also demonstrated how women-led organizations (WLOs) are a lifeline for displaced women and girls—providing safe and accessible healthcare, food and nutrition, psycho-social support, livelihoods training, legal assistance, protection, and more. From Sudan to Gaza, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to Pakistan, WLOs are on the frontline of protecting women and girls from gender-based violence.
This year’s 16 Days comes at a time of increasing pushback against women’s rights, gender-based violence programming, and gender equality. Rising conflict and drastic funding cuts this year have further devastated gender-based violence programming and support for WLOs—leaving millions of women and girls at risk of violence, exploitation, and abuse, and threatening decades of progress.
This week, WRC released a new report, “We Have Abandoned Them,” investigating how the resurgence of violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), coupled with US humanitarian funding cuts, has impacted women, girls, and WLOs in the North and South Kivu regions. Since the conflict escalated in January 2025, millions of women have been subjected to forced displacement, violence, and deprivation, all while the US slashed its humanitarian support to DRC by 95% compared to 2024 levels.
We worked with Congolese women researchers to interview displaced women and leaders of WLOs in North and South Kivu about their experiences. They told us how sexual and gender-based violence remains a defining feature of the conflict in DRC, used as a weapon of war, a tool of control, and an expression of systemic impunity.
Service providers and displaced women confirmed that while protection needs are intensifying, protection systems have effectively collapsed due to conflict and funding cuts. One international non-profit reported treating more than 7,400 survivors of sexual violence in Goma between January and April 2025, while women reported children as young as six being raped by M23 forces. Yet funding shortfalls and access restrictions now mean that rape kits are non-existent for survivors, while healthcare and legal services are shuttering. As one WLO told us, “We had 19 legal clinics. Now they are closed. Several cases remain unresolved. Several perpetrators are on the run.”
For women in the DRC, WLOs are a life-saving and life-sustaining force to protect them from gender-based violence. One WLO told us, “We are accountable to the women who trust us, but when the funds stop, they think we have abandoned them.”
Despite the global headwinds, WRC remains steadfast in our commitment to amplify the voices of women and girls in North and South Kivu—and in humanitarian settings around the world — as they call for better protection from, and response to, sexual and gender-based violence. Drawing on our findings from this report, we are advocating with key stakeholders to ensure the protection of women and girls from all forms of violence, justice and accountability for survivors of violence, and a sustainable, gender-inclusive peace, so women and girls in the DRC can live in freedom and security.
It is now more important than ever to stand up for rights and equality—including the right to live free from violence. From our I’m Here programming, to our research on how funding cuts have impacted services for migrant and displaced survivors of violence, to our initiatives to address sexual violence against men and boys in crisis settings, WRC’s championship of sustainable, locally-led solutions to end sexual and gender-based violence remains robust, despite the global backsliding.