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in Mozambique, Spotlight Initiative provided support to local organisations to improve community-based coalition and movement building. This support resulted in over 25 local civil society organisations and community-based organisations exchanging their experiences on best practices and challenges on sexual and reproductive health and rights, as well as the prevention of sexual and gender-based violence and child marriage. District platforms were created, in alignment with the country’s policy of decentralisation, to promote the human rights of women and girls. These platforms led to 285…
In 2021, Spotlight Initiative established the Pacific Feminist Community of Practice (PacFemCOP). This was moderated by DIVA for Equality in Fiji. It involved a co-creation process between 20 CSOs and around 80 activists from across the region. Through PacFemCOP, these activists were able to document feminist best practice from across the region, including topics such as feminist approaches to gender, ecological and climate justice; elimination of VAWG; how to mobilize, organize and action for change; feminist approaches to economic justice; SOGIESC; bodily autonomy and integrity; and sexual…
In Honduras, the Centre for Justice and International Law, in partnership with women’s rights organisations, civil society organisations and feminist organisations, worked tirelessly over five years to campaign for the passage of “La Esperanza Protocol”. This was published in December 2021 and is now recognised as the international standard for the investigation and response to threats and attacks against human rights defenders. Thanks to the work of WROs, the protocol includes a specific focus on the contribution of women human rights defenders to strengthening democracy. It also recognises…
In Malawi, Spotlight Initiative strengthened women’s movements in three regions (north, central and southern regions) and supported the formation of a national level movement: The Women’s Manifesto, coordinated by civil society organisations. Aligning with the principle of leave no one behind, the movement’s leadership includes rural women, survivors of violence, persons with disabilities and persons with albinism. Sixty five leaders from the movement developed their ability to use community scorecards (as a social accountability tool), create action plans and advance evidence-based advocacy…
In 2021, Spotlight Initiative in Tajikistan supported the establishment of the School of Gender Activists (SGA). This initiative is the first-of-its-kind, aimed at building the capacities of CSOs working to end VAWG. The SGA works to train up local experts who can advise the Committee of Women and Family Affairs, as well as other ministries implementing and promoting gender policies in Tajikistan. The programme to establish the SGA was split into two phases. The first focused on individuals already working within NGOs, while the second targeted youth aged 18-35. The programme also engaged with…
In 2022, the Spotlight Initiative programme in Trinidad and Tobago aimed to improve CSOs’ access to grants through a three-tiered approach of stakeholder consultations, capacity building, and adapting processes to be more context-relevant. The objective was to support resource mobilisation and increase institutional, operational and technical capacities for long-term and sustainable work on EVAWG.
The programme began by consulting a Civil Society National Reference Group to discuss feedback on Spotlight Initiative’s funding opportunities and requirements. CSOs provided feedback that the…
In 2019, Spotlight Initiative’s Africa Regional programme conducted a mapping of 779 civil society organisations and community-based organisations, including 45 networks and coalitions, 11 groups of people with disabilities, 7 groups of people affected by HIV/Aids, one Albino group and 13 LGBTQI+ organisations. This database helped capture themes, existing strengths, gaps and capacities of these organisations. Spotlight Initiative was then able to provide targeted support across these organisations.
Following this, Spotlight Initiative established CSO Secretariats across the five focus…
In 2020, Spotlight Initiative’s Latin America Regional Programme provided funding to support a Latin American coalition of WROs, feminist organisations and civil society organisations led by the Centre for Justice and International Law in Honduras. This coalition was advocating for the passage of a new protocol called “La Esperanza Protocol”, one of the first of its type, which aims to improve the investigation of and response to serious threats and attacks against human rights defenders.
A coalition of over 20 CSOs, women's and feminist organisations, spearheaded by the Center for Justice…
Under Pillar 6, the Spotlight Initiative Pacific Regional Programme aims to support WROs through the small grants funding mechanism. The small grants, ranging from USD 2,500 to USD 50,000, have a simplified application process, with fewer steps than other funding mechanisms.
A series of virtual town halls were held to prepare potential applications and provide an overview of the requirements, guidelines in the development of proposals and budgets, and reporting and monitoring and evaluation requirements. Further support was provided via email or phone, with the aim of reducing any…
The Spotlight Initiative programme in Mozambique provided training and ongoing capacity development sessions for 50 WROs. The WROs were identified through a mapping of organisations and then invited to a 3-day training session in advocacy, influencing, programme design, monitoring and evaluation and knowledge management. Opportunities were provided in these sessions for networking and sharing experiences. Special attention was given to organisations representing the interests of marginalised groups, such as people living with HIV, people with disabilities and rural women. WROs received ongoing…