Justice begins with those closest to the crisis.

Too little funding reaches the women organizations working on gender-based violence and access to justice in some of the world’s most complex environments. Where the Way Leads funds women leaders and their organisations who are working with survivors of war and violence.

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676M

Women live within 50km of deadly conflict.

The highest level since the 1990s.

(UN Women, 2025)

The Funding Gap

3%

of humanitarian funding reaches local NGOs directly.

Yet they deliver over 60% of frontline work.

(OCHA Global Humanitarian Overview, 2025)

46%

of women’s organisations in crisis settings are at risk of closure.

(UN Women, 2025)

0.2%

of global development aid is allocated to preventing violence against women.

(UN Women, 2024)

Across conflict-affected and fragile settings, women-led organizations are often the first to respond to violence.

Yet they are significantly underfunded.

What we do

Where the Way Leads Fund exists to resource women-led organizations working with survivors of violence in fragile settings.

We back local women leaders who are raising people’s legal awareness, and, accompanying survivors and their families in places where formal justice is often inaccessible, unsafe, or out of reach.

Why this matters

When women-led organizations are resourced, survivors are not left to navigate violence alone.

Survivors need trusted organizations that can stand with them, help them understand their options, reduce risk, and support their pursuit of safety and redress.

By resourcing those closest to the crisis, the Fund helps make survivor-centered justice possible.

Pillars of our work

Fund local women-led organizations with flexible support.

Back approaches that expand access to justice, legal empowerment, and accountability.

Amplify learning and stories that help shift more resources to the frontlines.

Our vision of impact

Families become more stable. Children can grow up safely. Communities become more resilient.

Government and local institutions become more responsive, trusted, and survivor-centred.

Women populations and survivors can safely access support and protection.

Women-led organisations are able to work under difficult conditions.

Field Notes

Blog

Without women organisations, access to justice is only rhetorical

Women’s organizations in conflict-affected countries sit at a fraught intersection of violence, law, and survival. They are often the first – and sometimes the only – actors that survivors of gender-based violence can safely approach. Yet their access-to-justice work unfolds in environments where formal systems are weak, politicized, or themselves sources of harm.

Read more →

The impact of war on women

War and displacement strip away many of the social, legal, and economic protections that women rely on, exposing them to layered forms of violence and discrimination. These harms do not begin with conflict, but the breakdown of institutions, displacement, and militarization intensify existing gender inequalities and create new risks.

Sexual violence is one of the most visible and devastating forms of abuse in wartime. Women and girls are raped by armed actors, militias, and sometimes members of their own communities, as a tactic of terror, punishment, or ethnic cleansing. Conflict conditions often make such violence effectively consequence-free for perpetrators: institutions that should investigate and prosecute are weakened, partial, or party to the conflict; survivors fear retaliation, stigma, or forced marriage to their assailant. Many never report, carrying the physical and psychological impacts in silence.