Spotlight Initiative Ecuador installs its National Steering Committee

QUITO, Ecuador - The National Steering Committee of the second phase of Spotlight Initiative kicked off its first meeting on 18 June with the participation of two representatives of the Civil Society Reference Group, representatives of the European Union Embassy and USAID in Ecuador, the Minister of Women and Human Rights, a representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility, the Technical Secretariat of the Gender Equality National Council, the UN Resident Coordinator and representatives of UNDP, UNFPA and UN Women.

In December 2023, a new cooperation agreement between the European Union and the UN was signed to launch Phase II of Spotlight Initiative, making Ecuador the first country in Latin America to implement the next phase of this global programme. This second phase includes, in addition to EU funding, significant funding from USAID.

The national Steering Committee is the main governing body of the Spotlight Initiative in the country and is in charge of setting the strategic and political guidelines for the implementation of the project. On this occasion, they learned about the initial work plan and some of the start-up proposals.

The Steering Committee underlined the importance of identifying mechanisms for monitoring and measuring the programmatic, communication and transformation efforts and results. It also noted the importance of incorporating civil society organizations that include intersectional and intergenerational perspectives in the implementation phases of the initiative.

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For more information please contact
Isabel Iturralde N. isabel.iturralde@unwomen.org 
Mario Naranjo mario.naranjo@un.org

About Spotlight Initiative. Launched in 2017 with an initial budget of 500 million Euros from the European Union, Spotlight Initiative (SI) represents an unprecedented global effort to invest in preventing violence against women and girls around the world as a precondition for achieving gender equality and empowerment. Spotlight Initiative responds to all forms of violence against women and girls, with a focus on domestic and family violence, sexual and gender-based violence and harmful sexual and gender-based practices, femicide, human trafficking and and safe migration.