Advanced Search

Spotlight Initiative has had a major focus on supporting legislative reforms in target countries and regions through a dedicated Pillar 1 on laws and policies. This has included the following approaches:

At a regional level, several regional programmes have worked to reform legislation, for example, the Africa Regional Programme supported a regional assessment on the status of enforcement of ending VAWG laws and policies. The Latin America Regional Programme worked with MESECVI, the Follow-up Mechanism to the Belém do Pará Convention to promote the InterAmerican Model Law to Prevent, Punish…

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 adopted a range of strategies across its country and regional programmes to anticipate, minimise and mitigate backlash and resistance in its programming. Key approaches and learnings include:

Conduct training and awareness raising to reduce the risk of backlash and resistance to EVAWG programming. In Uganda, Spotlight Initiative trained members of the Domestic Violence Coalition and Members of Parliament on how to understand and address backlash. In Argentina, the Spotlight Initiative developed evidence-based materials for families, teachers, clubs, journalists and…

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…

Spotlight Initiative established a Global Capacity Development Strategy to underpin its efforts to deliver capacity development activities globally. This strategy sets out the principles that capacity development efforts should be built upon. These principles include: 1) integration across multiple levels of programming; 2) contextual and demand-driven; 3) founded on partnerships; 4) informed by feminist pedagogies; and 5) designed with sustainability in mind. This strategy also clarifies a unified purpose for capacity development, identifies examples of capacity strengthening approaches…

Spotlight Initiative has supported coalition building as part of its commitment to strengthen women's movements and organisations and Leave No One Behind. With the support of Spotlight Initiative programmes, a total of 439 civil society organisations – representing youth and other groups facing multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination – across 11 countries were able to join coalitions and networks of women’s rights groups and civil society to deepen work to end violence against women and girls.

Key approaches and lessons include:

Conduct context mappings to identify CSOs and…

Spotlight Initiative’s approach to M&E at a global level involves continuous monitoring and evaluation of all programmes by the country teams, which feeds into a central level SMART platform that is used to monitor and collect data on results.

Spotlight Initiative’s monitoring and reporting online tool (SMART platform) allows all programme teams to report qualitative and quantitative data on indicators. This online platform contributes to a more integrated way of reporting by United Nations agencies, strengthens quality assurance and facilitates the consolidation, aggregation and…

Spotlight Initiative has made progress in bringing the elimination of violence against women and girls to the forefront of national government agendas by adopting a whole-of-government approach. Key strategies and learning include:

Programmes have directly engaged with the highest level of government, such as Heads of State, Ministers, and entities in charge of national development and planning, to secure political buy-in for ending VAWG to be a strategic national priority.
Supporting cross-government coordination mechanisms on EVAWG: Spotlight Initiative programmes have helped government…