TheCable

Natalia Kanem, executive director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), says the agency is committing nearly half of its funding to female-led organisations.

Kanem spoke on Monday at the opening ceremony of the Women Deliver conference in Kigali, Rwanda’s capital.

“It’s very important to understand the humanitarian and internal displacement conflict is having on women, and that is why we need to create safe spaces,” she said.

“For UNFPA right now, we are committing 40 percent of our funding to finance female-led organisations. And this is the leadership we are committed to.”

The UNFPA executive director made the announcement in reaction to a comment made by Ethiopian President Sahle-Work Zewde, who lamented the effect of conflict on women in the eastern African country.

In November 2022, the Ethiopian government ended a two-year conflict with rebel forces in the country’s northern Tigray region.

The civil war resulted in the death of 600,000 people, with the cost of reconstruction and rehabilitation of private and public properties estimated at about $25 billion.

Olusegun Obasanjo, former Nigerian president and African Union envoy, led the on-and-off negotiations for more than a year.

Speaking on the war’s impact, the Ethiopian president said women and girls felt the most heat.

“The biggest problem was the effect of the conflict on a lot of women, there were so many deaths, sexual violence, there were so many IDPs and women were affected disproportionately,” Zewde said.

“Many kids were out of school and many refugee camps were filled with women. Unfortunately, this is the situation in many parts of the world.”