At the start of this year, the U.S. slashed foreign aid, ripping away funding for clinics, legal aid, and safe spaces that women living through war rely on. The State Department restructure dismantled entire teams working on women’s rights, conflict stabilisation, and migration. Over 1,300 jobs were lost, along with the programmes and expertise they carried.
These cuts were political, deliberate choices. Ones that erased women from peace tables and stripped away their ability to rebuild their lives and communities. Weeks later, the U.S. brokered a peace deal in the DRC: one with no justice, no plan for healing, and no meaningful role for the communities most affected by the war.
These aren’t isolated moves. Together, they signal a shift from diplomacy to extraction, from care to control, where peace is signed behind closed doors, and the women who held communities together during conflict are left out. This is a dangerous test case for a new model of U.S. peacemaking, one that trades justice for minerals and calls it peace.
For years, research has shown that gender equality is crucial for lasting peace. Yet, as the U.S. slashes its foreign aid, many women, who should be at the centre of rebuilding societies, are left unsupported. The very people who could end and prevent violence and restore stability are losing access to care and fleeing renewed violence.
In the DRC, sexual violence has surged by over 270% since January. Hospitals report no rape kits in stock. Shelters have months-long waiting lists. Survivors are turned away at the door. Women-led organisations, already scraping by, are now losing what little funding they have left.
Women for Women International – an organisation that works with women survivors of war in some of the world’s most dangerous and fragile settings – had to end a critical project in February 2025 supporting survivors of sexual violence in the DRC due to the U.S.’s widespread aid cuts. That initiative provided safe spaces for survivors like Onya to heal. Onya, 23, was abducted and gang-raped by armed, uniformed men amidst the ongoing conflict. At a modest centre, she found a nurse who tended her wounds, a therapist who listened, and a women’s group that helped her feel safe in her body again. Now the clinic stands shuttered, and survivors find themselves isolated in their pain..
These cuts aren’t just about budgets; they devalue lives. The U.S. was the largest bilateral aid provider to the DRC, and its exit has caused devastating consequences for Congolese women. Many still hold hope for a better future. Last year, 99% of 818 Congolese women we surveyed expressed optimism that their quality of life would improve. But the biggest obstacles they said they face: food insecurity, instability, lack of healthcare, and war, will not be solved by aid cuts and peace deals that fail to include their voices.
The U.S.-brokered peace deal between Rwanda and the DRC underscores the consequences of excluding women from peace talks. While diplomats shook hands in front of cameras, the terms of the deal ignored the thousands of women raped by armed groups, with no mention of justice, healing or reintegration. Instead, it prioritises foreign mineral extraction, putting economic interests over human lives.
The deal’s omissions speak volumes. It contains no provisions for justice for survivors, no accountability mechanisms, and no meaningful participation from civil society. Top-down decisions that leave communities out of the disarmament and reintegration of armed actors could reintroduce perpetrators into the same communities they once terrorised, now disguised as “peacekeepers.” Survivors will be forced to seek justice from those who once harmed them, without consent or choice. This isn’t peace; it’s a continuation of violence.
And the closure of programmes that supported survivors is part of the same pattern. While the peace deal erased women from its terms, these cuts erase them from national recovery. The clinics, safe spaces, and education groups that once offered medical care, therapy, and community healing are gone. These programmes didn’t simply respond to violence, they worked to stop it, confront sexual abuse and the deeper injustices that drive conflict. Without them, the root causes remain. And the cycle begins again.
There’s still a path forward, but time is running out. The Women, Peace, and Security Act of 2017 offers a framework to integrate gender equality into U.S. diplomacy and peacebuilding efforts. However, this framework can only work if the U.S. government acts with political will to reinstate and expand support for women-led organizations and survivor-centred peacebuilding programs. Without this, peace will keep mining minerals and burying justice.
Peace is not a deal signed in a room. It is a promise kept in the lives of people. And no peace can hold if half the population is left out. The U.S. has the tools. It now needs the will. Restore the aid. Let women lead. That is how peace begins.
About the Author: Nisha Singh is the Senior Global Policy and Advocacy Manager at Women for Women International.
Photo source: Supplied