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Several Spotlight Initiative country programmes worked together to improve administrative and operational processes, in line with the UN Reform’s Business Operations Support Initiative. This included actions like joint procurement and human resource processes. These efforts aimed to streamline expertise, reduce transaction costs and take advantage of economies of scale, leading to faster programme implementation. Examples include:

Cost-shared budgets: In Liberia, the UN Resident Coordinator led efforts where Recipient UN Organisations identified opportunities to create cost-shared budgets…

Capacity development of key stakeholders in the government, health, police, justice, and social service sectors, educators, private sector partners, and civil society, can help to embed EVAWG knowledge, attitudes, and practices in people´s personal and professional lives.

For example, in Malawi, gender-sensitive trainings on survivor-centred reporting for Police Public Relations Officers and the media continues to yield results beyond the initial training sessions.

In El Salvador, civil society organisations contributed to new areas of research on justice, social auditing for women's…

Developing detailed sustainability plans with identified financing sources is key to taking forward the most important programming outcomes after closure of the initial programme. Some Spotlight Initiative programmes, such as those in Zimbabwe and Malawi, have conducted an in-depth analysis of programme and financial sustainability to identify which activities should be continued, discontinued, or adapted (adding some elements and dropping others).

In Zimbabwe, this analysis was followed up with the amount of capital needed to continue to implement desired selected activities in the future…

In Zimbabwe and Malawi, Spotlight Initiative programmes supported the development of sexual harassment policies at multiple levels.

In Zimbabwe, in collaboration with the Zimbabwe Gender Commission, the programme filled a critical gap by supporting companies to develop gender-based violence and sexual harassment policies through the creation of the Strategy for the Elimination of Sexual Harassment and Gender-based Violence in the Workplace in Zimbabwe 2021-2025. This was developed through a consultative process with feedback from diverse stakeholders including the government, trade unions…

Most women in Malawi do not have access to formal financial services because of persistent barriers in access to identification documents, mobile phones, digital skills, and financial capabilities. To bridge the gap in digital financial services, Zayela Digital Finance Programme was officially launched in 2022. Zayela seeks to strengthen women's economic empowerment opportunities by promoting the digital financial inclusion of women and young women at risk of violence in Spotlight Initiative implementing districts.

Results: Working with Airtel Malawi to operate the digital accounts, a total…

Spotlight Initiative established community and survivor funds to improve access to services for survivors who could not otherwise afford to seek essential services or justice, while also supporting the economic recovery of survivors as part of longer term rehabilitation. Specifically, community and survivor funds were established to:

Improve access to services for survivors and Obstetric Fistula patients (OF) from marginalised and remote areas;
Support the economic recovery of survivors and OF patients as part of their long-term rehabilitation; and
Improve access to justice by…

Spotlight Initiative in Malawi has partnered with the Government and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to establish Safe Spaces across the country. These spaces are run by “Mentors” who are trained to support women and girls to navigate and challenge gender based violence. They are also trained to intervene and follow up in cases of child marriages.

Women and girls who access these spaces are able to access services including sexual and reproductive health, psychosocial support, and counselling. In addition, they are given opportunities to develop skills to negotiate and challenge harmful…

In 2020, the Spotlight Initiative programme in Malawi received reports that many survivors from the rural communities in which they worked were unable to access justice and essential services because they lived long distances from these services and couldn’t afford the cost of public transport. In response, Spotlight Initiative developed funds to help survivors overcome these economic barriers. They worked with traditional authorities to establish community committees which oversaw the distribution of these funds.

These committees sat within the Ministry of Gender, Social Welfare and…

In Malawi, Spotlight Initiative established a number of Chiefs Forums in 2020 to support work to end VAWG. Spotlight Initiative consulted with 3,421 community stakeholders to establish buy-in and to ensure that the Chiefs were better held accountable to their communities, especially women and girls. Through these forums they provided training to 1,561 Chiefs to support them to become Champions of Change.

Following this training, these traditional leaders collectively annulled 1,222 child marriages (98% of the registered child marriages in the 6 districts) and supported the re-enrolment of…

Spotlight Initiative has partnered extensively with the media and arts and culture organisations to heighten awareness of healthy gender norms and behaviours and increase knowledge about the rights of women and girls, especially at the community level. 

In Malawi, for example, the programme collaborated with a private media company to raise awareness on eliminating VAWG. This included the promotion of positive masculinities through the HeforShe campaign across the six Spotlight Initiative programme districts in-country. Furthermore, to highlight the important role of activists during the 16…