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Capture and share learning

Key steps
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Capture and share learning

Capturing and sharing learning is important to develop high-quality, evidence-based programming to end violence against women and girls (VAWG). Learning in VAWG programmes can take many different forms, including through documenting and sharing innovating approaches, documenting practice-based learning, operational research, and impact evaluations. Sharing these insights widely helps contribute to a collective pool of knowledge that benefits a wide range of stakeholders, including policymakers, practitioners, and researchers worldwide. It helps others adapt and scale effective strategies to have a greater impact on preventing violence. Sharing learning also contributes to a culture of accountability, where participants, communities, and donors can see the impact of programmes.

Guiding Principles
  • Do no harm approach
  • Participatory Approach
Spotlight Initiative

Approach and Learning

As the largest global effort to end VAWG, Spotlight Initiative was uniquely positioned to build a culture of learning and knowledge exchange across countries/regions that could be used to inform effective programming and policies on EVAWG across the globe. Key approaches and learning include:

  • Developing and implementing a robust Knowledge Management Strategy, which set out Spotlight Initiative's ambition to be an innovation platform for EVAWG, harnessing knowledge, solutions and expertise. Led by the Spotlight Initiative Secretariat at the global level, it outlined the key knowledge management activities, work plan, roles and responsibilities at global and country/regional level.
  • Creating an online knowledge hub: A key element of Spotlight Initiative’s knowledge management is SHINE, an online knowledge hub on ending VAWG. Produced by the United Nations Trust Fund to End Violence against Women (UN Trust Fund) in collaboration with Spotlight Initiative, SHINE brings together government, civil society, the UN, EU and other practitioners for active engagement and the co-creation of knowledge to end violence against women and girls. See case study on SHINE Hub.
  • Creating knowledge repositories accessible to all programme teams: Spotlight Initiative developed two repositories – the Global Knowledge Product Tracker and the Global Secretariat Technical Repository. These repositories listed more than 1000 knowledge products from across Spotlight Initiative programmes, as well as briefs and reports sharing the lessons and promising approaches on cross-cutting themes. The Secretariat also used the Community of Spotlight Initiative and monthly newsletters to share resources with a broader network working to end violence against women and girls.
  • Convening learning and knowledge exchange events: Spotlight Initiative also focuses on strategic convening and knowledge exchange, hosting global knowledge exchange on topics such as engaging the private sector. Communities of Practice enable different Spotlight Initiative teams to directly upload and share learning with other teams. Through in-person convenings like the Global Learning Symposium, online webinars and online discussions, peer learning and the development of knowledge briefs on various topics, Spotlight Initiative has been able to share learning and foster a global community committed to ending violence against women and girls.

Top Tips

How to capture and share learning - top tips based on learning from the wider sector.

Click a tip for more information.
Determine how learning fits in the broader M&E framework
Develop learning questions
Engage stakeholders to develop a learning agenda
Agree and resource activities to capture learning
Communicate and share findings using various methods
Build a culture of learning and collaboration
View Sources

Case Studies

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Global
SHINE hub – a global online platform scaling up knowledge exchange on EVAWG, amplifying lessons learned and good practices
Spotlight Initiative

In March 2022, Spotlight Initiative, through a partnership with the UN Trust Fund, created a multi-stakeholder online hub for global exchange called SHINE. SHINE Hub operates as a combined knowledge hub, community of practice and advocacy hub, and is the first online knowledge exchange hub that brings together government, civil society, the United Nations, the European Union and other practitioners for active engagement to end violence against women and girls, and in the co-creation of knowledge.

The platform is accessible in more than 50 languages. It supports the creation, collaboration and amplification of knowledge and provides a strategic online space to engage in discussions, learn about the latest resources and share knowledge to inform global policy, programming and advocacy on ending violence against women and girls, and to model comprehensive programming.

To increase awareness and uptake of SHINE, demonstrations of the hub were conducted for over 100 Civil Society Reference Group members from Argentina, the Africa Regional Programme, and the Latin America and Caribbean regions, as well as for European Union gender focal points, technical agency focal points, and participants of Spotlight Initiative’s Global Learning Symposium held in Mexico in September 2022.

To date, a total of 1550 users have registered, surpassing targets, and over eight online discussions have been held, including on the topics of sustainability, engaging the private sector and Civil Society Reference Group sustainability. These discussions offered an online space for users to share insights, which were collected, analysed and distilled to support the development of knowledge products.

For example, in 2022, a series of global knowledge exchanges were held, including an exchange on “Engaging the Private Sector to End Violence Against Women and Girls”, a collaboration with Spotlight Initiative in Zimbabwe. Building on this exchange, the Spotlight Initiative programme in Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean Regional Programme also shared their experiences in engaging with the private sector to develop gender-based violence workplace policies and toolkits. Subsequently, Spotlight Initiative led an online discussion on SHINE, centred around engaging the private sector to end violence against women and girls, and developed a knowledge brief presenting insights from the online discussion as well as the webinar on lessons and good practices from the private sector.

region
Region: Global
stakeholders
Stakeholders: UN agencies, Civil Society Organisations, Local government, National government
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Global
Global Learning Symposium – a strategic in-person convening and knowledge exchange event
Spotlight Initiative

The Spotlight Initiative Secretariat has also played a pivotal role in fostering cross-regional and intraregional knowledge exchanges by organising in person convenings.

The Global Learning Symposium (GLS), which took place in Mexico in 2022, drew over 200 participants from the United Nations, government, civil society and other stakeholders, and aimed to consolidate the gains made over the past five years of the Initiative. A total of 45 plenary and thematic sessions were organised, providing a space for deep reflection and sharing of results, lessons learned and best practices across contexts, which could be scaled up to eliminate violence against women and girls and further foster a global community working to end VAWG.

As a follow-up to the Global Learning Symposium, a survey was conducted, the results of which highlighted the importance of such convenings and the need for continued learning. Moreover, a Global Learning Symposium Resource Package was developed and disseminated widely. The resource package summarises key highlights from each session, and shares all presentations, relevant tools and resources, allowing those unable to attend to access the rich knowledge shared.

region
Region: Global
stakeholders
Stakeholders: UN agencies, Civil Society Organisations, National government
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Malawi, Africa
Innovative mechanisms to disseminate and leverage data to advance EVAWG strategies - Malawi
Spotlight Initiative

Spotlight Initiative in Malawi developed the Kuwala Knowledge Management Platform, which facilitates information sharing, knowledge exchange and cooperation at technical and analytical levels on issues related to gender equality and violence against women and girls that have emerged from programme implementation.

One key feature of the platform is its ability to visualise month-to-month trends in violence, broken down by region and types of cases reported. This allows users to identify trends over time and spot increases, investigate the reasons behind the increase, and get resources to the right people at the right time.

To ensure cohesion across Spotlight Initiative interventions, the Kuwala Platform was linked to the Data Observatory Hub (by manually uploading Spotlight Initiative information), and work is progressing to achieve real-time data syncing between the two systems.

region
Region: Africa
stakeholders
Stakeholders: Local government