Embedding programmatic goals into national government initiatives and ensuring programmes support implementation of existing government policies both help to secure buy-in and long-term national commitment. Wherever possible, it is important to anchor ongoing initiatives, strategies and plans to end violence against women and girls with public commitments from policymakers. High-level political commitment by government to the elimination of violence against women and girls can help to institutionalise VAWG efforts and increase the impact and sustainability of VAWG programming. Furthermore, promoting the civic participation and meaningful engagement of women’s movements, youth movements and community stakeholders in the national policy space can sustain progress while supporting an inclusive and participatory approach. 

At community level, engaging in participatory dialogues and systematic community mobilisation at each stage of programming can be useful for building community-level support and ownership of efforts to end violence against women and girls.

Investing and working in diverse partnerships with civil society actors, feminist groups, international development actors, faith-based organisations, academia, influencers, private sector actors, politicians and leaders can help sustain impacts beyond the programme timeframe. These actors can continue influencing widespread change and affect social norms and policy change in their communities and across networks. 

By placing an emphasis on strengthening capacity and building skills of partners, programmes can have a long-term impact on ending violence. This work should occur at different levels to strengthen institutional mechanisms in government, service providers’ and organisations (i.e. CSOs and WROs), as well as individual expertise.

Some examples of areas of capacity building undertaken by the Spotlight Initiative include: gender-responsive budgeting, integrating VAWG in national action plans, working with CSOs in service delivery, training frontline personnel across sectors (i.e. health, education, police and justice systems) and participatory monitoring and evaluation.

A sustainability strategy is a joint plan which guides the transition from where the programme currently stands, towards a locally-owned vision for consolidating, maintaining, and scaling efforts to end VAWG. It outlines the necessary steps for all stakeholders. A planned sustainability strategy is essential for the ethical transition of VAWG programming away from the original funding mechanism. It is important that work does not prematurely end due to a lack of follow-on resources, particularly if significant progress has been made, or if there is a risk of survivors and marginalised groups being exposed to further risk or actual harm as a consequence of programme transition or closure. 

Sustainability plans should include the following elements:

• An explanation of how progress towards programme goals will continue and, ideally, be owned by local, national and/or regional stakeholders. 
• Information on how the inter-institutional and inter-sectoral coordination gained through the programme will be sustained, how stakeholders will be supported in the lead-up to the transition, and the mechanisms put in place to minimise possible risks.
• A plan for ensuring that rights holders, particularly survivors, are not exposed to further risk or actual harm as a consequence of the transition of activities, based on inputs from these rights holders. 
• Considerations for how resources will be allocated and/or mobilised to sustain interventions that either cannot be handed over to local stakeholders or cannot be ethically closed without risk of harm to rights holders. Sustainability plans should therefore feed into resource mobilisation efforts for each programme, as well as in the design of other relevant programmes in the pipeline. 
• Definition of the roles of each stakeholder and ensure a clear division of labour and accountability with the required resources for implementation. 
• An internal review mechanism to monitor sustainability measures and allow the programme to adjust accordingly.
   

Securing long-term financial support for VAWG prevention and response in particular regions, countries and sub-regions can be a real challenge but is critical to sustaining programmatic efforts to end violence against women and girls. Resource mobilisation plans can help provide a clear roadmap on how best to secure longer-term financial commitments. Diversifying funding sources can be an important way to avoid any disruptions to programme activities.