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In Zimbabwe and Malawi, Spotlight Initiative programmes supported the development of sexual harassment policies at multiple levels.

In Zimbabwe, in collaboration with the Zimbabwe Gender Commission, the programme filled a critical gap by supporting companies to develop gender-based violence and sexual harassment policies through the creation of the Strategy for the Elimination of Sexual Harassment and Gender-based Violence in the Workplace in Zimbabwe 2021-2025. This was developed through a consultative process with feedback from diverse stakeholders including the government, trade unions…

The Spotlight’s Initiative Latin American Regional Programme developed an innovative survey tool called the Diagnostic Tool on Violence against Women. The goal of the tool is to lay bare the sexist behaviour in the leadership and culture of an organisation, and to identify organisational practices that can be designed and integrated to prevent and address VAWG. The survey is answered online through the Indic@Igualdad (Equality@Work) platform. There are multiple sections of the survey that ask staff to report on various areas related to VAWG.

From the results, an Organisational Violence…

In Niger, following the successful African Girls Summit in 2021, the feminist organisation "Fada de Filles" (Girls’ Fada) was founded with the support of Spotlight Initiative. A “Fada’’ is a traditional community space used for dialogue and speech, decision-making and solidarity, normally reserved for men and boys. These spaces are used to take collective decisions on community dynamics and how communities function. In the spirit of peer-to-peer mentoring, the concept of the Fada des Filles emerged from the need for girls to appropriate these spaces and contribute to transforming social norms…

In Kyrgyzstan, Spotlight programme used a mobile game, “Mystery of Sary Kol”, to raise awareness of the dangers of child marriage, reaching over 39,000 players. This game was developed as a follow-up to the successfully designed and launched “Spring in Bishkek” mobile game in 2021, which focused on forced marriage. Both games were jointly designed with adolescent girls.

According to a survey of players of “Mystery of Sary Kol”, the game has significantly influenced players’ beliefs that child marriage is a crime (86% of players), improved the willingness of players to help a friend who…

In Nigeria, Spotlight programme has implemented the STEAM Flagship for Women and Girls, an integrated approach and good practice for developing life skills through “21st century entrepreneurship training” for women and girl survivors of violence, including those who have suffered harmful practices. STEAM stands for SRHR information; Technology skills for sales and marketing; Ending VAWG and harmful practices information; Accounting and business management skills; Manufacturing and start-up support. Women and girls in the programme received training as peer educators on sexual and reproductive…

In 2020, Spotlight Initiative supported a National Parenting Programme in Grenada with a campaign called “Step Up Your Parenting Game”. This campaign targeted men and women who were parents and guardians. The focus of the messaging was on improving parenting approaches for the benefits of their children. This campaign included a number of sub-messages including

“No matter who, no matter what, there is no excuse for abuse”
“Children need their fathers: they need love, support and encouragement”
“Feeling stressed? Check your B.E.T. (body, environment, thoughts)”
“Communicate with your…

Spotlight Initiative provided training to 450 parents on positive parenting and skills for developing respectful family and gender-equitable relationships. Across Timor-Leste, the use of corporal punishment (physical violence) to discipline children is prevalent, with one study by UNICEF suggesting 83% of parents consider it necessary to frighten or threaten their children to ensure they behave well and 46% believing that physically punishing children is necessary to bring them up correctly. Spotlight Initiative parenting trainings involved a variety of activities, including role-playing to…

Spotlight Initiative conducted training using the Gender Action Learning System (GALS) in partnership with the Public Foundation “Education for Community Development”. They worked at individual, family and institutional levels to help promote equitable attitudes around gender to end VAWG. This training was provided to fathers and following their participation in GALS training, 40% of fathers showed improved communication with their families on family matters and reported valuing everyone’s contribution. This is a significant improvement from baseline data, which showed deeply rooted…

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…