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To sustain long-term impacts beyond programming timeframes, it can be useful to focus efforts on establishing gender-equitable policies and mechanisms. For example, laws to end VAWG, gender mainstreaming policies, new gender bodies and mechanisms, and comprehensive sexuality education in national curricula.

In Ecuador, Spotlight Initiative programme has strengthened institutional gender units within various governmental departments, including the Ministry of Education and the Legislative Assembly, which has cultivated a sustained focus on gender issues in the government and ministries that…

Representatives of women’s rights groups and human rights-based civil society organisations - including those representing groups facing intersecting forms of discrimination- have been engaged in shaping Spotlight Initiative from its inception in governance and advisory roles. Spotlight Initiative teams have established Regional, National, and Global Civil Society Reference Groups (CSRGs), engaging diverse women’s rights and feminist activists as well as subject-matter experts and marginalised groups. CSRGs advise on and monitor implementation, recommend changes, and hold Spotlight Initiative…

The Kitgum District local government in Uganda has developed Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to guide the provision of GBV services by partners in the region. The document describes the roles, responsibilities, guiding principles, and procedures for prevention of and response to any form of GBV by service area, namely medical, psychosocial, safety and security, and legal support.

The SOPs take a survivor-centred and multi-sectoral approach, focusing on joint coordination to ease accessibility of referral services for GBV survivors in the post-conflict setting. Featuring guiding…

In Uganda, where Spotlight Initiative programme was implementing the SASA! community mobilisation programme, the team adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic by creating safety circles to connect regularly via WhatsApp and text, and ensuring community activists and leaders checked in with at-risk women via phone or in-person while social distancing.

In refugee settings in Uganda, the rollout and scale-up of the SASA! programming supported an increase in reporting on intimate partner violence and child marriage, demonstrating that women felt more confident to report violence. 100% of these reported…