Women-led organisations (WLOs) play a critical role in leading responses to humanitarian crises and meeting immediate needs. Nonetheless, they remain chronically underfunded and excluded from humanitarian decision-making and coordination.

There is still no shared understanding within the international assistance sector of the value of funding WLOs in humanitarian action – a fact that has prevented strategic progress on the issue. To date, there has also been very limited in-depth research documenting WLOs’ work, or their experience navigating the international humanitarian architecture. This reflects a lack of investment, not just in WLOs, but in evidencing and substantiating the work they are already doing. In this paper, we document the current role that WLOs are playing in crisis response, collating snapshots and examples drawn from evaluations, case studies and other published sources. Together, these demonstrate the value and impact of WLOs’ work, which is so often unseen by the international humanitarian sector.

Report by the Overseas Development Institute