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In Uganda, Spotlight Initiative supported the SASA! Together – a community mobilisation approach that supports communities to create positive and sustainable changes in the norms that perpetuate violence against women and girls. SASA! Together is a revised version of the original SASA! Approach, developed by the Ugandan NGO Raising Voices. New features of SASA! Together include a distinct focus on intimate partner violence, strategies that reach across the whole community, and more support for organisations and communities to sustain change.  

The SASA! Together methodology focuses on…

In 2020, the Count Me In! Consortium and members of Civil Society Reference Groups (CSRGs) collectively developed a Civil Society Monitoring Toolkit. The Civil Society Reference Groups were established by Spotlight Initiative, engaging diverse women’s rights and feminist activists, subject-matter experts and marginalised groups from local to global levels advising on and monitoring the implementation of Spotlight Initiative’s programming, recommending changes, and holding Spotlight Initiative accountable for its commitments. Through independent monitoring and reporting, CSRGs are critical to…

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…

In 2021, Spotlight Initiative in Uganda applied the SASA! approach to VAWG prevention in refugee camps and accompanied this approach by installing solar streetlights - as a way to extend the reach and impact of the programme.

The SASA! methodology trains community activists to raise awareness and engage people in critical, reflective dialogue about VAWG, reporting mechanisms, and services within communities. It engages all community members, recognising that to shift the harmful gender norms and power inequalities that drive VAWG requires a collective change among sufficient numbers of…

Spotlight Initiative implemented the SASA! community mobilisation approach in both Haiti and Uganda, with careful focus on high quality training and mentoring of community activists and engagement with programme stakeholders.

In Haiti, Spotlight Initiative sensitised and trained women and girl leaders using the SASA! approach. In 2021, 26 mentors were trained, equipping them with the skills to support healthy relationships, build self-esteem, and apply effective facilitation techniques necessary for.

In Uganda, Spotlight programme scaled-up the SASA! community mobilisation and norm…

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…