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Programmes should intentionally seek to build equitable partnerships with a range of stakeholders, including those who are often excluded from decision-making around programming. This includes CSOs representing women, people with disabilities, indigenous people, members of the LGBTQI+ community, and refugee-led organisations among others, ensuring that the safety of those CSOs and their representatives is prioritised at all points. In some contexts, programmes will have to be particularly careful about how to engage with CSOs representing people with marginalised identities to reduce the risk…
Effective partnerships bring together organisations with different expertise and skillsets. It is important to recognise the skills that all organisations have, rather than privileging the expertise of one over others. For example, a WRO may have more practical and lived experience of what works when advocating to end VAWG in a particular context or addressing the needs of communities on the ground. An organisation working with persons with disabilities (OPD) is better placed to ensure VAWG programmes reach women and girls with disabilities. On the other hand, an INGO may have more experience…
Early in the process of building a partnership, larger organisations often expect smaller CSOs and WROs to “prove” their suitability, which can result in extractive and inequitable processes. Larger organisations need to facilitate mutual due diligence as an important first step to building an equitable partnership. This requires that larger organisations also be prepared to open their work and processes to interrogation and scrutiny. In addition, during this early stage of partnership building, it is important for all organisations to explore whether their potential partners' values…
In 2021, the Spotlight Initiative programme in Mozambique worked with local leaders to support them to prevent child marriage. They established provincial forums of traditional authorities in three provinces where 133 informal and formal decision-makers were engaged in dialogues on gender and VAWG. Overall, 1,038 community leaders took part in “reflection sessions” to discuss ways to prevent child marriage.
“Behaviour change takes time. With the support of the Government and Spotlight Initiative, we are leading several community-driven actions towards gender equality” - Community leader…
In Uganda, following the delivery of capacity strengthening sessions with government stakeholders, host and refugee communities advocating for EVAWG and the safety of women, new commitments were made in Yumbe District, which had a high prevalence rate of teenage pregnancies. Local authorities advocated for police to adequately investigate and bring perpetrators of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) to justice. In Adjumani District, a GBV ordinance is being pushed for by district women councillors (women caucus) and has received support by the local chairperson.
Additionally, through ‘security…
In Zimbabwe, Spotlight Initiative developed a highly effective whole-of-government and society approach to end VAWG. It worked with the Government of Zimbabwe, in partnership with a range of key stakeholders and partners, to develop a High-Level Political Compact (HLPC). Launched in 2021, the HLPC focuses on increasing political will, accountability, and action at all levels of government and society.
The HLPC and Spotlight Initiative in Zimbabwe have achieved notable progress in enhancing laws, policies and institutional support for addressing VAWG. Key accomplishments include the launch…
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…
In Mexico, domestic violence related calls to 911 sharply increased by 46% in the first few months of 2020 due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. There was significant demand for shelters and not enough rooms available. To respond to this, the Spotlight Initiative programme, the national government, local governments and a hotel corporation built a multi-stakeholder partnership to provide free accommodation in hotels for women experiencing violence as an interim strategy. This was a complex partnership due to the diversity of actors from the public and private sector. To address this, a…
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…