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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…

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…

In 2021, Spotlight Initiative partnered with Deaf Women Included (DWI) to conduct a mapping of VAWG response services in Hurungwe and Guruve districts in Zimbabwe. The aim of this mapping was to identify existing VAWG and Sexual and Reproductive Health services within the districts and the extent to which these services were inclusive of survivors with disabilities. This initiative followed community dialogues with community leaders and women with disabilities that brought to light some of the barriers survivors with disabilities faced to accessing essential services.

This initiative used…

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…

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…

The Spotlight Initiative programme in Mozambique provided training and ongoing capacity development sessions for 50 WROs. The WROs were identified through a mapping of organisations and then invited to a 3-day training session in advocacy, influencing, programme design, monitoring and evaluation and knowledge management. Opportunities were provided in these sessions for networking and sharing experiences. Special attention was given to organisations representing the interests of marginalised groups, such as people living with HIV, people with disabilities and rural women. WROs received ongoing…

In December 2021, Spotlight Initiative launched the WithHer Fund in partnership with the UN Foundation to provide flexible financial support to smaller, local, grassroots and WROs working to end violence against women and girls in their communities. 

The fund operates under feminist grant-making principles, focusing on flexibility, trust and transparency. To overcome common funding barriers faced by small organisations, the WithHer Fund uses a simplified application and reporting process. 

The first cohort of WithHer Fund grantees was chosen based on specific criteria, including the…

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…