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In response to the alarming rise in femicides in Mexico, particularly in Chihuahua State, Spotlight Initiative worked to strengthen legal frameworks against gender-based violence. Despite existing laws like ‘Norma Oficial Mexicana’ and the General Law on Women’s Access to a Life Free of Violence, femicides continued to increase, driven by deep-rooted gender inequalities and weak law enforcement.

Spotlight Initiative undertook a comprehensive assessment of Chihuahua’s legal policies with Grupo de Accion por los Derechos Humanos y la Justicia Social A.C. (Action Group for Human Rights and…

Spotlight Initiative’s overarching goal in its Theory of Change (ToC) is to ensure that all women, especially those who are marginalised and vulnerable, live free from violence and harmful practices. Together with its partners, Spotlight Initiative aims to make concrete changes in six Outcome Areas or Pillars to end VAWG. Changes in these six Outcome Areas contribute to achieving SDG 5 and SDG 16. ToC “if/then” logic statements were then crafted for each Outcome to describe the desired results.

Example: IF/THEN TOC for Outcome 1 (Legislative and policy frameworks) 

IF
(1) Women and VAWG…

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…

When the COVID-19 pandemic started, many Spotlight Initiative programmes were already being implemented and teams had to quickly adapt implementation to changing realities. Overall, Spotlight Initiative rapidly accelerated and redirected more than USD 21 million across programmes to address VAWG in the context of COVID-19. For example:

Mobile and remote services were developed and reinforced to address the acute needs of women and girls. For example, the Zimbabwe programme scaled up mobile one-stop centre service provision, exceeding the set target by 300% and bringing women with…

In Mexico, domestic violence related calls to 911 sharply increased by 46% in the first few months of 2020 due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. There was significant demand for shelters and not enough rooms available. To respond to this, the Spotlight Initiative programme, the national government, local governments and a hotel corporation built a multi-stakeholder partnership to provide free accommodation in hotels for women experiencing violence as an interim strategy. This was a complex partnership due to the diversity of actors from the public and private sector. To address this, a…