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In Belize, the Spotlight Initiative programme made significant advances in strengthening and scaling up Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) at the secondary school level through a partnership with the Ministry of Education. The CSE was revised to meet international standards and scaled up to all secondary schools, sharing important anti-VAWG messages.
"CSE training is inclusive and open to everyone and addressed sexual education for all genders and orientations." - Community-level Peer Educator in Belize City
However, not all adolescents and youth attend school. In an effort to…
All Spotlight Initiative programmes adopted a comprehensive theory of change and worked across all the Spotlight Initiative pillars to develop a comprehensive VAWG programme. The approach taken by Spotlight Initiative Mozambique was as follows:
To support legislation and policies to end VAWG (pillar 1), the Spotlight Initiative worked with the Government of Mozambique to reinforce legislation and policies and develop multiple legal and policy instruments. These instruments included the Multi-sectoral Mechanism for Prevention, Reporting, Referral and Response to Violence Against Children at…
Developing detailed sustainability plans with identified financing sources is key to taking forward the most important programming outcomes after closure of the initial programme. Some Spotlight Initiative programmes, such as those in Zimbabwe and Malawi, have conducted an in-depth analysis of programme and financial sustainability to identify which activities should be continued, discontinued, or adapted (adding some elements and dropping others).
In Zimbabwe, this analysis was followed up with the amount of capital needed to continue to implement desired selected activities in the future…
When the COVID-19 pandemic started, many Spotlight Initiative programmes were already being implemented and teams had to quickly adapt implementation to changing realities. Overall, Spotlight Initiative rapidly accelerated and redirected more than USD 21 million across programmes to address VAWG in the context of COVID-19. For example:
Mobile and remote services were developed and reinforced to address the acute needs of women and girls. For example, the Zimbabwe programme scaled up mobile one-stop centre service provision, exceeding the set target by 300% and bringing women with…
Spotlight Initiative relies on a multi-tiered and multi-sector governance structure at the global and programme levels to make decisions and steer work toward its objective of ending violence against women and girls. From the onset, Spotlight Initiative established a clear governance architecture and administrative arrangement, with three core functions: governance by global and country decision-making bodies, daily management and administration supported by dedicated teams, and implementation by the Recipient UN Organisations (RUNOs).
“A key good practice agreed across all Reference…
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…
The Gender-Based Violence Constant Companion Pocket Guide, developed by the Spotlight Initiative Belize programme contains basic tools for field practitioners to know what to do in case a GBV incident is disclosed to them, specifically:
How to support a survivor of gender-based violence, including Do’s and Don’ts of responding to a disclosure
Who discloses their experience of GBV, accompanied by a safe and ethical response to disclosure flowchart
Location-specific contact details for the local GBV focal point and advice on what to do in contexts where there is no GBV actor available
Th…
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…