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In 2021, the Spotlight Initiative programme in Mozambique worked with local leaders to support them to prevent child marriage. They established provincial forums of traditional authorities in three provinces where 133 informal and formal decision-makers were engaged in dialogues on gender and VAWG. Overall, 1,038 community leaders took part in “reflection sessions” to discuss ways to prevent child marriage.


“Behaviour change takes time. With the support of the Government and Spotlight Initiative, we are leading several community-driven actions towards gender equality” - Community leader…

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…

In 2020, Spotlight Initiative worked with influential Christian and Muslim leaders in Mali to spread messages that condemn VAWG. The President of the High Islamic Council of Mali and the Representative of the Episcopal Conference of Mali appeared in a series of Spotlight Initiative-supported television and radio messages. Through these messages, these leaders denounced VAWG, citing religious texts that support respectful relationships. This campaign ran for two months. During this period, television messages were viewed 40,878,000 times and radio messages were heard 4,663,300 times. In…