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In Uganda, following the delivery of capacity strengthening sessions with government stakeholders, host and refugee communities advocating for EVAWG and the safety of women, new commitments were made in Yumbe District, which had a high prevalence rate of teenage pregnancies. Local authorities advocated for police to adequately investigate and bring perpetrators of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) to justice. In Adjumani District, a GBV ordinance is being pushed for by district women councillors (women caucus) and has received support by the local chairperson.

Additionally, through ‘security…

In Guyana, private sector companies are being encouraged and supported by Spotlight Initiative to use the Women’s Empowerment Principles. The first steps in the process included mapping private sector companies, NGOs, and governments that could benefit from the WEPs. Next, a series of webinars were held to increase awareness of the WEPs, which resulted in 18 organisations expressing interest in joining the programme and developing gender action plans and gender gap analysis tools. Currently, there are 1,600 signatories in the Latin American and Caribbean region. It was learned that additional…

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…

Grantees of the UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women used core institutional funds for a variety of purposes which have contributed to the sustainability of WROs and CSOs, including: 

Self-care and staff resilience: In Argentina, Fundación Andhes, an organisation that trains cis, trans and lesbian women to become legal advisors for survivors of violence, used its core funding to hire a psychologist to support staff responding to reports of violence. In Nigeria, the HACEY Health Initiative also engaged a therapist to support their staff. Staff in the HACEY Health Initiative reported…

To diversify the types of implementing partners selected, Spotlight Initiative in Malawi undertook several activities to address barriers to smaller grassroots organisations. The programme issued a joint call for expressions of interest and disseminated hard copies in local languages at the community level. The team worked closely with district authorities to share hard copies of the advert in their offices and allow organisations to submit hand-written applications through district offices, saving them postage costs. As a result of these targeted efforts to engage smaller CSOs, 95% of the 112…

Spotlight Initiative programmes strengthened existing, or created new, institutional mechanisms to foster coherent multi-sectoral approaches to preventing and responding to violence against women and girls. Nearly half of Spotlight Initiative programmes – including in Afghanistan, Liberia, Malawi, Nigeria, Timor-Leste, Vanuatu and Zimbabwe – either established or strengthened multi-stakeholder coordination mechanisms. In each case, coordination was established at the highest level, and the process included identifying relevant stakeholders, working with a clear mandate and governance structure…