‘It is widely recognised that specialist women’s voluntary community organisations are best placed to ensure the safety of women and children….Yet the coronavirus outbreak poses a real threat to the sustainability and survival of these very organisations and a precarious future for the UK’s women’s sector as a whole.’
This is from a June 2020 report by the Women’s Resource Centre into the impact of Covid-19 on UK women’s charities. The report is based on a survey, run in partnership with Rosa and the Women’s Fund for Scotland, of 122 organisations from across the UK.
The report finds concerns that the Covid-19 crisis is triggering a steep decline in women’s mental health, in addition to a rise in the numbers of women killed by men and domestic homicides. It also finds that organisations led by and for black and minoritised women are in an even weaker financial position, and are seen to be less likely to survive the duration of the crisis.
The report calls on the UK government to make unrestricted emergency funds available to sustain these organisations in both the short and long term. It also calls on governments UK-wide to make dedicated funding available to sustain the women’s sector beyond the crisis.
