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Adapting the SASA! Community mobilisation approach: Spotlight Initiative has adapted and implemented the SASA! Approach in Uganda and Haiti, originally developed by the Ugandan women’s rights organisation Raising Voices. SASA! is rooted in a feminist understanding of men’s power over women as a root cause of VAWG and works to balance power in relationships and communities. It trains and supports community activists to facilitate informal activities - such as dialogues, role plays, discussions of posters - with community members in their homes, workplaces, churches and social locations. It aims…

A key focus of Spotlight Initiative's work has been to strengthen the institutional environment for ending VAWG. In different countries, programmes have variously worked with national government, the private sector, media and education institutions both to reduce violence within these institutions, ensure they implement commitments to end VAWG and to foster a wider enabling environment for VAWG prevention.

In addition to work to reform and strengthen laws and policies, Spotlight Initiative has worked with government bodies to strengthen institutional capacity to implement these commitments…

Spotlight Initiative has integrated women’s economic empowerment (WEE) activities as part of a comprehensive approach to ending violence against women and girls in several countries. This has included as part of prevention programmes to address risk factors including women’s lack of access to and control over economic resources. It has implemented economic empowerment initiatives with survivors to support them to recover and rebuild their lives after experiencing violence. It has also developed specific economic empowerment programmes to target those involved in conducting harmful practices…

Spotlight Initiative has implemented a range of interventions in different countries to promote healthy relationships between couples, parents and children, other family members and peers.

Healthy relationships in families: Recognising the sensitivities of working to change family dynamics, Spotlight Initiative programmes have adopted different approaches to starting conversations and engaging participants – including:

Engaging religious leaders who conduct family and couples mediation (e.g Tajikistan – see case study) and work to end and annul child marriages (e.g. Mali and Malawi).
P…

Spotlight Initiative programmes have supported a number of different social empowerment interventions with women and girls, and sometimes also with boys, men and other family members. Key approaches and learning include:

Building safe spaces for women and girls to learn about their rights, build awareness on sexual and reproductive health, healthy relationships and GBV, learn life skills and vocational skills. See case study below on Malawi.
Strengthening social networks: Spotlight Initiative programmes in many countries, including in Malawi, Mozambique, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uganda…

Spotlight Initiative has focused on developing comprehensive VAWG prevention programmes that work across sectors and levels to address the root cause and drivers of VAWG and the norms, attitudes and beliefs that sustain violence. The key elements of its approach have included:

An overall strategy that combines a dedicated pillar on VAWG prevention (Pillar 3) as well as a focus on embedding prevention strategies across all other pillars of its work, including legal reform and institutional strengthening. Read more about the pillars of Spotlight Initiative
Selecting and designing prevention…

From its inception, Spotlight Initiative has sought to systematically address both the drivers of gender-based violence - through prevention work - and its impacts, through response work. Key approaches and learnings include:

Prevention programmes in each context should be informed by an analysis of the drivers of the specific form of violence. Spotlight Initiative has addressed various forms of VAWG, including intimate partner violence, sexual exploitation and abuse, child marriage and harmful traditional practices. Whilst all of these forms of violence are driven by gender inequalities…

Prevention is one of the six key pillars of Spotlight Initiative. This pillar focuses on addressing the root causes of violence against women and girls, including discrimination against women and girls and gender inequality in the distribution of power/resources. The largest percentage of Spotlight Initiative’s investment across the six pillars was allocated towards prevention efforts. Key approaches and learnings from this work include:

Focusing on social norm change is a catalyst for change across multiple areas needed to end VAWG. Changing attitudes, behaviours, and social norms takes…

Spotlight Initiative places substantive focus on the role of social norm change as a catalyst for change across multiple pillars of its work. It recognises that social norms shape everyday expectations about people's behaviours and are embedded in formal institutions, laws and policies. Key approaches and learnings about understanding and transforming social norms include:

Supporting women’s movements and CSOs with the skills and resources to build a global movement for social change is also one of the most effective and sustainable ways of transforming social norms.
Use a holistic…

Spotlight Initiative has supported multiple campaigns focused on ending VAWG across its country and regional programmes. Key approaches and lessons include:

Work with celebrities and opinion leaders to change public opinion around VAWG. For example, in Nigeria and Argentina, programmes worked with sports stars in football to denounce VAWG and promote respectful behaviour towards women. In Haiti, to launch the 2021 16 Days of Activism campaign, Spotlight Initiative hosted a concert with the singer and UNICEF Ambassador, Jean Jean Roosevelt, to denounce violence against women and girls.
Use…