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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…

Spotlight Initiative aimed to build strong political commitment from the outset through working closely with Heads of State, ministers and parliamentarians, to encourage them to champion ending VAWG and implement laws, policies and programmes to enable this. Key approaches and learnings include:

Training parliamentarians on drafting VAWG legislation: Several Spotlight Initiative country programmes offered specialised training to parliamentarians on drafting and implementing VAWG legislation (e.g. Argentina, Honduras, Liberia, Malawi and Zimbabwe). This training focused on equipping…

A key focus of Spotlight Initiative has been to strengthen mechanisms for the implementation of laws and policies through supporting the development of national and sub-national action plans on ending VAWG, under Pillar 1 (Laws and Policies) and Pillar 2 (Institutions). Key approaches and learning include:

At a country level, Spotlight Initiative programmes have supported 43 countries to strengthen their national action plans to end violence against women and girls. In 2022, Spotlight Initiative also helped develop 80 new plans, strategies or programmes to address violence against women and…

The design of Spotlight Initiative builds on over four decades of global commitments to end VAWG, including the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the​​​​​​ 1993 Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women - as well as key regional conventions such as the 1994 Convention of Belém do Pará in the Americas, the 2003 Maputo Protocol in Africa, and the 2011 Istanbul Convention in Europe. Spotlight Initiative programmes have aligned their work with the provisions of these frameworks using the following approaches:

The Spotlight…

In its Technical Guidance Note on the Four Pillars of Spotlight Initiative’s Theory of Change, Spotlight Initiative lays out how to gather sensitive and complex data, stating that this requires: (i) Using reliable, ethically-sound methodologies; (ii) Technical capacity to collect, analyse, use and disseminate VAWG and harmful practice prevalence data; and (iii) Considerable financial and human investments. Key approaches and learning about how to achieve this include:

Follow key global and local ethical guidelines for VAWG data collection. All Spotlight Initiative programmes follow ethical…

All Spotlight Initiative programmes were expected to conduct mid-term evaluations as well as final evaluations. In addition a number of global level and thematic assessments were conducted to identify learning and impact. Key approaches and learning included: 

Conducting mid-term assessments to promote lesson learning within programmes. Programmes were expected to conduct Mid-Term Assessments while a programme was ongoing. This was to support programmes to identify opportunities for improvement, consider lessons learned, and develop recommendations to inform the development of the next…

Spotlight Initiative uses a tailored monitoring and reporting online tool (SMART platform), which allows all Spotlight Initiative programme teams to report qualitative and quantitative data on indicators and sub-indicators. Key approaches and learning on designing indicators include:

Ensuring disaggregated reporting against indicators: Spotlight Initiative has aimed to ensure data disaggregation and reporting by income, sex, age, ethnicity, disability and geographic location at a minimum. Data disaggregation has also been pursued for other characteristics relevant in national contexts over…

Grounded in the recognition of women and girls as rights holders and change-makers in their communities, Spotlight Initiative is committed to implementing a participatory approach to programming, including in its monitoring, evaluation and reporting activities. Spotlight Initiative programmes have implemented participatory monitoring and evaluation (PME) in different ways.

Key approaches and learning include:

Engaging rights holders in monitoring work: Members of WROs, CSOs and direct beneficiaries were engaged to collect and analyse monitoring data on the progress of various projects…