Programmes to end VAWG should recognise the diverse ways that different groups and entities can contribute to these efforts. Programmes should seek to engage multiple stakeholders as partners from across government, civil society, women’s rights organisations, community and traditional leaders, the private sector, academia, the media, and others. This can help to ensure political commitment and buy-in, reduce backlash, increase coordination and collaboration, improve effectiveness, ensure programmes are contextually appropriate, and promote sustainability. 

Programmes can support the development of whole-of-society partnerships by:

• Providing spaces for different groups to meet and identify shared aims to inform joint action plans.
• Providing core, long-term and flexible funding for WROs and CSOs to ensure they have the resources to participate in collaborative efforts to end VAWG.
• Supporting reciprocal learning initiatives where different groups can come together to share lessons from their own experiences, challenges they have faced, and collaboratively work to overcome these.
• Ensuring that these efforts are inclusive of WROs and CSOs that represent women and survivors in all their diversity, including marginalised groups. This includes but is not limited to women with disabilities, women with diverse sexual orientation and people with diverse gender identities, women from different ethnicities or religious groups, refugee women, adolescent girls, older women, widows, mothers etc.
• Proactively identifying, acknowledging and addressing power dynamics between organisations to support equitable partnerships.

Efforts to end VAWG are often supported by consortia of organisations. When working with multiple organisations, it is important to address the risk of siloed working, to maximise efficiency of resources and capacities, support coordination, streamline operational processes, strengthen partnerships, and establish clear lines of accountability. This can be achieved by:

• Utilising existing coordination mechanisms. For example, UN entities working to end VAWG can use the UN Resident Coordinators to facilitate collaboration across different UN entities. This was a key mechanism by Spotlight Initiative as part of the ‘One UN’ approach.
• Establishing new coordination mechanisms. New consortia of organisations working to end VAWG can establish their own coordination mechanisms tailored to their needs. For example, the Spotlight Initiative developed Steering Committees to oversee the implementation of country programmes as follows:
  1) ensuring accountability, effective management and implementation of the Spotlight Initiative; 
  2) ensuring communication and coordination between the European Union, United Nations, and country level programmes;
  3) ensuring programmes are aligned with national government priorities; and
  4) managing stakeholder relationships at the country level.

Ending VAWG requires commitment from national and regional institutions. Programmes can support efforts to strengthen the commitment and capacity of institutions to end VAWG through:

• Providing technical assistance and capacity building on the impact of VAWG and ways to end VAWG.
• Supporting the development of fully financed national action plans (NAPs) on ending VAWG.
• Promoting gender-responsive ministries and gender-responsive budgeting.
• Facilitating linkages and collaboration across institutions working on gender, migration, disability, poverty, ethnicity, age, location, education, violence and conflict.

Read more in the section on Laws, Policies and Institutions

Efforts to end VAWG should recognise the importance of primary prevention through addressing the multiple risk factors that drive violence. Programmes should work with communities and institutions to identify and implement contextually-relevant prevention strategies, which might include one or more of the following:

• Social norm transformation efforts
• Community mobilisation
• Healthy relationship initiatives
• Economic empowerment programmes
• Social empowerment programmes
• Political advocacy and legislative change
• Programming in formal and informal education settings
• Working with men and boys

It may not always be possible or appropriate to include multiple prevention strategies within a programme. In these cases, programmes should consider coordinating with other organisations engaged in complementary prevention efforts within the same location. Through coordination and reciprocal support, organisations can maximise the impact of different programmes to prevent VAWG. Read more in the section on VAWG Prevention.

Comprehensive VAWG programming requires providing access to quality, survivor-centred response services to meet the needs of survivors and seek to prevent further violence (secondary prevention). Comprehensive service delivery engages multiple sectors, including:

• Medical facilities
• Mental health and psychosocial support services
• Legal entities
• Police
• Safe Spaces/ Shelter
• Legislative bodies
• Social protection and income generating programmes
• Education and training institutions such as schools
• Community reintegration programmes

It may not always be possible or appropriate to include all relevant sectors within a programme. In these cases, programmes should coordinate with other initiatives to develop clear referral pathways that link survivors to other services. Programmes should start this process by mapping existing VAWG services, and then look to build partnerships with those service providers. Funders supporting smaller programmes should use their networks to facilitate network building across diverse service providers. For more details about how different sectors can engage in VAWG response, see the VAWG Response section.

Evidence-based programming to end VAWG requires accurate, quality data that is relevant to the context in which a programme is being implemented. Programmes can help improve the quality, accuracy and availability of data on VAWG by:

• Supporting capacity strengthening for national statistics offices
• Supporting more accessible presentation of data to inform decision making
• Promoting the use of data to guide programme monitoring

Read more in the Data, Evidence and Learning section.

Local WROs and CSOs are in a unique position to lead efforts to end VAWG, given their deep contextual understanding of the needs of communities, the impact of VAWG, and their community networks. Programmes can amplify and strengthen WROs and CSOs by:

• Advocating for laws and policies that protect the participation of WROs and CSOs.
• Ensuring WROs and CSOs are included in the design, implementation and monitoring of programmes.
• Supporting reciprocal learning and capacity strengthening for WROs and CSOs.
• Providing flexible, long-term core funding to WROs and CSOs.
• Strengthening equitable partnerships with WROs and CSOs.
• Facilitating network strengthening across diverse WROs and CSOs.

Read more in the section on Women's Movements.