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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 in Honduras has supported the ‘Cure Violence’ model – a transformative approach aimed at reshaping social norms to address the alarming rates of femicide and violence against women and girls. Honduras has the highest femicide rate in Latin America at 6 cases per 100,000 women in 2022, with a culture of impunity where 96% of such crimes go unpunished. This UNICEF-supported initiative involves mobilising communities to change social norms in areas affected by gang violence and trafficking. It uses ‘violence interrupters’ to lead community dialogues and efforts to identify…
In 2020, Spotlight Initiative’s Latin America Regional Programme provided funding to support a Latin American coalition of WROs, feminist organisations and civil society organisations led by the Centre for Justice and International Law in Honduras. This coalition was advocating for the passage of a new protocol called “La Esperanza Protocol”, one of the first of its type, which aims to improve the investigation of and response to serious threats and attacks against human rights defenders.
A coalition of over 20 CSOs, women's and feminist organisations, spearheaded by the Center for Justice…
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…
Spotlight Initiative in Honduras recognised the need for improved coordination of communications and knowledge management among UN agencies. To address this, an interagency ‘toolbox’ was developed to pool communications products, resources and tools about VAWG. The preliminary mapping of communications activities, including EVAWG campaigns, publications and materials, can be found at Mapeo Preliminar de Piezas de Comunicacion Iniciativa Spotlight.
This collaborative approach is seen as innovative, with the potential to improve the impact of communication efforts by reducing duplication…
Independent monitoring and reporting by civil society on programmatic contributions can be critical to upholding programme legitimacy, relevance and accountability. In 2020, the Count Me In! Consortium and several members of Spotlight Initiative Civil Society Reference Groups collectively developed a Civil Society Monitoring Toolkit to monitor the work and contributions of Spotlight Initiative. Featuring a set of 26 indicators, the Reference Groups can use the toolkit to monitor the implementation of Spotlight Initiative programming at country, regional and global levels, with indicators…
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…
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…
During COVID-19, Spotlight Initiative programmes needed to rapidly pivot programming to respond to the increase in violence against women and girls during the pandemic.
To meet the immediate needs of women and girls experiencing or at risk of violence, Spotlight Initiative Samoa programme took a flexible approach by repurposing its funds to work with the Ministry for Women, Community and Social Development and frontline service providers such as civil society organisations to create and distribute 400 “Prevention Packs” containing information and materials on COVID-19 and GBV translated in…