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In Liberia, community awareness raising of VAWG and prevention activities have contributed to increased justice for survivors and strengthened institutions through gender-aware policies and stronger referral networks.

In 2020, Spotlight Initiative and partners supported community and national radio to share messaging that challenged negative social and gender norms that lead to VAWG, shared health guidelines related to COVID-19 and information about service referral pathways. These messages reached 23,425 community members, including traditional, religious and community leaders, and were…

In Argentina, women and girls can report cases of VAWG, including violence that takes place in public places, using a “Tramas en Acción” (Action Plots), created by the grantee Centro de Intercambio y Servicios para el Cono Sur Argentina in partnership with the Ministry for Women.

Following the purchase of tablets for staff and with the support of 30 volunteers, the Spotlight Initiative grantee CHRDA recorded at least 1,000 cases of VAWG. Additionally, 2,467 women at risk of and survivors of violence, including internally displaced women, were provided with comprehensive services including…

Mozambique has introduced a digital police database for registration of GBV cases, known as “InfoViolência”. Instead of using paper, a police officer inserts the survivor’s data on a tablet connected with a server, thereby increasing efficiency and safety by digitizing the registration process. Ultimately, it will open the door to an integrated database that encompasses the whole GBV referral system in the country – a national digital platform to register and manage reported cases of violence.


"Once fully operational, Infoviolência will allow for more GBV survivors to be assisted, and for…

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…

In December 2019, the United Nations in Zimbabwe established a fleet of Mobile One Stop Centres across the country to help dismantle the barriers the survivors in remote and hard to reach areas faced to accessing GBV response services. As part of this, they supported volunteers engaged in GBV referrals by providing them with data and airtime packages, to enable continuous two-way communication between volunteers, survivors, hotlines, and Mobile One Stop Centre teams. They also supported the coordination of shuttle services and fuel to support survivors to travel to Mobile One Stop Centres as…

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 2020, the Spotlight Initiative programme in Malawi received reports that many survivors from the rural communities in which they worked were unable to access justice and essential services because they lived long distances from these services and couldn’t afford the cost of public transport. In response, Spotlight Initiative developed funds to help survivors overcome these economic barriers. They worked with traditional authorities to establish community committees which oversaw the distribution of these funds.

These committees sat within the Ministry of Gender, Social Welfare and…

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…