LONDON: UN Women called on Saturday for the ceasefire in Gaza to be transformed into lasting safety, recovery and rights for women and girls, urging that they be placed at the center of all humanitarian and reconstruction efforts.
“Every woman who rebuilds a bakery, a clinic or a classroom is rebuilding peace. Every dollar invested in women-led aid is a down-payment on hope,” said Sofia Calltorp, UN Women’s Chief of Humanitarian Action, during a press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
“The data is very clear on this: When we invest in women, every $1 generates an $8 return for whole communities,” she added.
Calltorp warned that the needs of women and girls in Gaza “remain at an all-time high,” noting that more than one million women and girls require food aid, and nearly a quarter of a million need urgent nutrition support.
“This ceasefire is our window to deliver, to deliver fast, to stop famine where it has begun and prevent it where it looms,” she said.
The UN official described the toll of the war on women and girls as devastating.
“For two years, women and girls in Gaza were killed at a rate of roughly two every hour. This number only defines the scale of this war, and it will haunt our collective conscience for generations,” Calltorp said.
She added that most women in Gaza have been displaced at least four times since the start of the war, describing the ceasefire as “their first chance to stop running, to find safety, and to rebuild.”
“But winter is coming, and too many still have no shelter,” she said.
According to Calltorp, one in seven families in Gaza was now led by a woman.
“They need aid that reaches them directly, so they can feed their children, access health care, rebuild livelihoods and restore some stability after losing everything,” she said.
She emphasized that both the delivery and design of humanitarian assistance must center women’s needs and voices.
“Because it’s not just about getting aid in and who it reaches, it is also about how we deliver it,” she said.
“If we do not put the humanitarian needs of women and girls at the center, and if we do not include women’s organizations in the response, in recovery, and in the work of rebuilding, then women will be excluded from the future of Gaza altogether.”
Calltorp ended her address by reaffirming UN Women’s commitment to supporting the humanitarian response in Gaza, adding: “At UN Women, we are now working side-by-side with the UN system, which is on the ground fully mobilized to scale up life-saving assistance.”
