Here are some ways the ongoing violence is impacting women:

Overall facts and figures

• Over half (55  per cent) of the displaced population are women and children.  
• 47 per cent of women and girls in Haiti will need humanitarian aid in 2025.
• Women’s access to health services is hampered and their unpaid care work has significantly increased, with several healthcare facilities and over 900 schools shut down due to insecurity.

Gender-based violence 

• Sexual and gender-based violence is on the rise – especially in displacement sites where shelter, sanitation, and protection are severely lacking.
• Women are most targeted group of sexual violence[1] (including rape, gang rape, and rape with kidnapping and killing) and are the most vulnerable at home when gangs raid homes in a neighbourhood during an attack.
• Girls tend to be more vulnerable while in the street.

Food insecurity  

• 5.7 million people in Haiti experience high levels of acute food insecurity.
• About 1 million households headed by women face acute food insecurity.
• Women’s food security is worsening, compared to August 2024, in a number of areas. In displacement camps, 65 per cent of female-headed households now face acute food insecurity; in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area, 60 percent; in the Rest-of-West region, 50 per cent; and in Artibonite, 40 per cent.

UN Women calls on the international community, governments, humanitarian organizations, donors, development and private sector partners to: 

• Provide emergency food aid and cash assistance to female-headed households.
• Establish income-generating activities to strengthen women’s self-reliance and livelihoods.
• Support women’s organizations so they can effectively advocate for their rights and needs and provide services to survivors of violence.

 [1] UN Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Arrangements (MARA), April 2025. SRSG on Sexual Violence in Conflict.