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A specific focus on marginalised women and girls: Spotlight Initiative’s overarching goal is to ensure that all women, especially those who are marginalised and vulnerable, live free from violence and harmful practices. This means programmes variously include a focus on women and girls with disabilities, indigenous people, migrant women and girls, ethnic minorities, those living in poverty, or any other historically marginalised group facing multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination.

Take action to implement the “leave no one behind” (LNOB) principle: Spotlight Initiative invests…

Key learning from Spotlight Initiative’s approaches to programme strategy development include:

The importance of conducting contextual research to inform the programme strategy: All Spotlight Initiative programmes were advised to conduct baseline studies to inform their monitoring framework / results reporting in the inception phase. In addition, Spotlight Initiative programmes in several countries and regions conducted additional research using various research methods to better understand the drivers of specific forms of violence, the national and specific local contexts, the existing…

At the global level

As an inter-agency initiative, anchored in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General, Spotlight Initiative leverages the collective expertise of the core UN implementing organisations – the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF). The Secretariat coordinates efforts to support teams worldwide, foster learning and share best practices. This global coordination aims to have a ripple effect, strengthening inter-agency partnerships at all…

Spotlight Initiative applies a survivor-centred approach as a guiding principle for all of its programming work across all pillars. This is an approach that:

Entails non-judgmental listening, validation and empathy;
Seeks to reduce of self-blame and shame;
Provides information about the traumatic effects of violence; and
Ensures confidentiality, safety and security, respect, non-discrimination and non-stigmatisation.
In terms of service provision, Spotlight Initiative programmes worked with service providers to consistently apply a survivor-centred and trauma-informed approach to…

Designing to context: Spotlight Initiative adapted the pillar model to the needs and challenges of each specific country and regional context. In the early stages of programme design, teams conducted country-specific assessments to understand the unique challenges and then tailored interventions under the six pillars to that context. A strong emphasis was placed on using data and research to inform the interventions and ensure that programming and budgets were allocated based on the most pressing issues related to VAWG in each context. Programmes also identified local stakeholders to partner…