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In 2019, the United Nations’ Women's Peace and Humanitarian Fund (WPHF) and Spotlight Initiative established a strategic partnership to channel funding to civil society organizations (CSOs) working to end violence against women and girls (VAWG) in conflict and crisis situations. As part of this effort, WPHF and Spotlight Initiative also collaborated to strengthen networking and peer learning among CSO partners from across the world through the Global Learning Hub (L-HUB) online events.

WPHF and Spotlight Initiative’s partnership led to new support to Association des Femmes de Madeline (AFM)…

In Belize, the Spotlight Initiative programme made significant advances in strengthening and scaling up Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) at the secondary school level through a partnership with the Ministry of Education. The CSE was revised to meet international standards and scaled up to all secondary schools, sharing important anti-VAWG messages.

"CSE training is inclusive and open to everyone and addressed sexual education for all genders and orientations." - Community-level Peer Educator in Belize City

However, not all adolescents and youth attend school. In an effort to reach…

Spotlight Initiative worked with UNFPA and the Family Planning Association of Trinidad and Tobago (FPATT) to implement the Collaborative HIV Prevention and Adolescent Mental Health Programme (CHAMP). This supported young people and adult caregivers across three regions of Trinidad and Tobago. This programme was established with a view to addressing HIV prevention but, through community engagement, reduced the likelihood of youth engaged in the programme responding to peer pressure to engage in adolescent sexual activity.  Spotlight Initiative trained around 25 community leaders as ambassadors…

Spotlight Initiative in Haiti supported the Determinants of Violence Against Women and Girls study, which highlighted the political and economic sociocultural factors (values, religious beliefs, attitudes and behaviours) that instigate or support violence against women and girls, particularly domestic violence. The results of this study have informed the “Pathways for a Prevention” strategy, which will feed into the national violence against women and girls prevention model and the national education programme for the elimination of domestic violence against women and girls.

In 2020, Spotlight Initiative supported a National Parenting Programme in Grenada with a campaign called “Step Up Your Parenting Game”. This campaign targeted men and women who were parents and guardians. The focus of the messaging was on improving parenting approaches for the benefits of their children. This campaign included a number of sub-messages including:

“No matter who, no matter, what, there is no excuse for abuse”
“Children need their fathers: they need love, support and encouragement”
“Feeling stressed? Check your B.E.T. (body, environment, thoughts)”
“Communicate with your…

In 2022, the Spotlight Initiative programme in Trinidad and Tobago aimed to improve CSOs’ access to grants through a three-tiered approach of stakeholder consultations, capacity building, and adapting processes to be more context-relevant. The objective was to support resource mobilisation and increase institutional, operational and technical capacities for long-term and sustainable work on EVAWG. 

The programme began by consulting a Civil Society National Reference Group to discuss feedback on Spotlight Initiative’s funding opportunities and requirements. CSOs provided feedback that the…

In Trinidad and Tobago, Spotlight Initiative worked closely with the Office of the Prime Minister Gender and Child Affairs Division (OPM GCA) to support consultations for a National Strategic Action Plan (NSAP) on GBV. Although a plan had previously been developed for the period 2016-2020, it did not receive Cabinet approval and it was not until 2020, with the launch of Spotlight Initiative, that the persistent advocacy efforts spearheaded by UN Women's Caribbean regional office came to fruition.

“Spotlight Initiative allowed it [NSAP] to be back on the table as an important document in the…

In the Caribbean region, Spotlight Initiative has been supporting the development of ethical guidelines for data collection. The guidelines were informed by User Producer Dialogues held across the region that brought together representatives from ministries, departments, agencies, and civil society organisations to discuss VAWG data collection and management. These dialogues underscored the urgency of addressing administrative data as a complement to prevalence data, the need for harmonisation of tools and processes for data collection and management, and the priority for standardisation…

Spotlight Initiative in Grenada worked in close collaboration with national partners to develop an online data system to improve the collection and use of administrative data on violence against women and girls. The online platform was developed in 2022 with the Central Statistical Office and the National Data Centre of Grenada, following extensive consultation with civil society and with key stakeholders in the public sector, including the Royal Grenada Police Force.

“The adoption of a data collection system that produces harmonized statistics that informs policy directives and evidence…

Capacity development of key stakeholders in the government, health, police, justice, and social service sectors, educators, private sector partners, and civil society, can help to embed EVAWG knowledge, attitudes, and practices in people´s personal and professional lives.

For example, in Malawi, gender-sensitive trainings on survivor-centred reporting for Police Public Relations Officers and the media continues to yield results beyond the initial training sessions.

In El Salvador, civil society organisations contributed to new areas of research on justice, social auditing for women's…