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As part of wider UN reform, UN agencies are encouraged to explore opportunities to share costs, for example through joint missions, joint premises, joint capacity-building and by harmonising functions to eliminate duplication and reduce costs. An illustrative example comes from Papua New Guinea, where Spotlight Initiative RUNOs shared costs by working from the same office space. This arrangement allowed the Initiative’s Programme Management Unit to operate more efficiently and in a coordinated manner. By identifying similar opportunities, those working on EVAWG programming can increase…

Potential implementing partners and grantees can sometimes be put off applying for VAWG programmes due to complicated application and reporting processes. In many country and regional programmes, the Spotlight Initiative found that creating a single ‘Expressions of Interest’ (EOI) across UN agencies simplified the process. This way, organisations with limited capacity could apply more easily by submitting only one application instead of responding to multiple calls with different UN processes. After succeeding at the EOI stage, organisations then submitted individual bids for specific…

A key element of operating as ‘One UN’ is to collaboratively agree and follow a unified framework for addressing violence against women, that draws on the expertise of relevant UN agencies and evidence-based strategies.

RESPECT Women: Preventing Violence against Women Framework is a comprehensive framework to help policymakers and implementers with EVAWG programming. Developed by the World Health Organisation, with UN Women, the framework has been endorsed by  other UN agencies and bilateral partners.
INSPIRE Framework provides a UN framework for ending violence against children.

Holistic and comprehensive VAWG prevention, mitigation and response requires a multi-sectoral approach, including health, justice, education, security and social services - as well as engagement with women's rights organisations. Strengthening multi-sectoral approaches to VAWG helps address the multiple drivers of violence across individual, social, cultural and structural levels and helps ensure prevention and mitigation more effectively.

For instance, training staff or programme participants on survivor-centred approaches can help ensure that referral networks are established and improve…

While mapping services is an integral part of developing referral pathways, ensuring appropriate, safe, and effective referral options that practice a survivor-centred approach is a critical element of systematically addressing the needs of survivors. Fractured referral pathways or services that do not employ a survivor-centred approach can cause harm and re-traumatise or re-victimise the survivor.

Read more in our pages on mapping existing services and strengthening referral systems here.

It is important to train and mentor programme staff and volunteers with the knowledge and skills to treat survivors with dignity and respect, ensure that their safety and needs are prioritised, and support their self-determination and respect choices. When hiring or onboarding new staff and volunteers, it is important to include attitude-based questions in interview protocols to measure how strongly candidates align with a survivor-centred approach. Survivor-centred attitudes and practices require repeated and appropriate training and skills development to ensure adherence. This should include…

During the initial design of a new VAWG programme, developing standard operating procedures (SOPs) for service providers can help to institutionalise a survivor-centred approach and ensure that all staff understand processes and ways of working relating to confidentiality, safety planning, referrals, case management, and data management.

In turn, safeguarding policies provide clarity on how to prevent, mitigate or respond to sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment, including how to (anonymously) report grievances. Staff should receive regular training on these policies and procedures, and…

When designing a programme or intervention, it is important to consult with women and girls in all their diversity, not only to get their input but also to empower them to make decisions about programming types and approaches. To do this, programmes should engage early and often with various women’s organisations, including locally-led women’s organisations, LGBTQI+ organisations, disability rights organisations, refugee women-led organisations, and other constituency-led organisations working on GBV programming. It is particularly important to understand which groups if survivors may be…

To ensure a survivor-centred approach is adhered to at every stage of the programme cycle, it’s important for survivors to meaningfully participate and co-create programming at every stage, including design, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, exit and sustainability strategies. This applies to all programmes that work on VAWG, whether focusing on prevention, mitigation or response.

Even the most well-designed VAWG programmes can be thrown off course by unforeseen events like the COVID-19 pandemic, conflict situations, natural disasters, or humanitarian emergencies. These external shocks can have a profound impact on programme activities and can exacerbate violence against women and girls in target communities. To address emerging challenges, it is important to build the capacity and resilience of relevant actors through technical training and support, as well as fostering a culture of innovation and flexibility that allows programmes to adapt, innovate and pivot to…