ECLAC

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Address/Websites

220 East 42nd Street
New York, NY 10017

About Measure

Background

Launched in 2017 with an initial investment of over 500 million USD from the European Union, Spotlight Initiative is the United Nations Secretary-General’s High Impact Initiative to end violence against women and girls (EVAWG). Recognized as one of the 12 High-Impact Initiatives – driving progress across the sustainable development goals – Spotlight Initiative represents an unprecedented global effort to address violence against women and girls at scale.

During its first phase (2017- 2023), Spotlight Initiative helped cohere the UN system to implement 34 programmes across five regions. This included two civil society grant-making programmes – established in collaboration with the UN Trust to End Violence against Women and the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund – which helped channel additional resources directly to civil society. By fostering a “One UN” approach under the leadership of the Resident Coordinators at the country level, Spotlight Initiative has leveraged various UN agencies’ complementary expertise, deepened collaboration, and streamlined operational processes, allowing for stronger programme delivery and better results for women and girls.

Through its deep partnerships at country and regional level – including with governments, civil society, faith-based and traditional leaders, academic institutions, media, the private sector, and others – Spotlight Initiative drove significant progress across response and prevention efforts. A strong commitment to meaningful engagement with civil society in particular, including local and grassroots organisations and feminist and women’s rights groups, has been central to the Initiative’s approach, as well. Under its first phase, nearly half of the Initiative’s activity funds were channeled directly to civil society, ensuring local ownership, buy-in, and sustainability of the Initiative's investments. At the global level, the Initiative forged a range of strategic partnerships, including with the Group of Friends, a coalition of 93 UN Member States advocating to end violence against women and girls, and the UN Foundation, which helped launch the WithHer Fund to channel more funding directly to local organizations.

Through its comprehensive approach – working to pass progressive laws and policies, strengthen institutions, deepen prevention programming, improve access to services, and generate data, and by centering partnerships – particularly with civil society – the Initiative has been shown to be 70% to 90% more effective at reducing the prevalence of violence against women and girls than siloed, single-pillar approaches. By aligning its interventions with national and local priorities, Spotlight Initiative works to deepen capacity, political will, and long-term commitment to ending violence against women and girls and advancing gender equality and women’s rights.

Areas of Focus

Unique to the Initiative is a whole-of-society approach that places ending violence against women and girls at the heart of national development priorities and gives local communities the tools they need to address violence in their specific context. The model works to support the development and revision of gender responsive laws and policies; strengthen institutions and data collection on VAWG; promote gender-equitable attitudes and positive social norms, and provide quality services for survivors of violence and their families.  It does this work in partnerships with government and, critically, with civil society and women’s movements at every level, enhancing civic space and driving sustainable, transformative change.

Resources

Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean
Item ID
{F9078F4C-272F-47E4-9BE6-313D023D455D}
UNAgency ID
{74FA002E-F2E9-4429-8C55-ABCD31274D45}
Policy Framework
ECLAC’s mandate and policy framework in the area of violence against women derive from the Regional Programme of Action for the Women of Latin America and the Caribbean (1994), confirmed by the Lima Consensus, adopted by the Eighth Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean (2000), and the Mexico Consensus, adopted by the Ninth Regional Conference (2004).

ECLAC’s mandate and policy framework in the area of violence against women has been further strengthened by the recommendations of the Quito Consensus, adopted by the tenth session of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean (August 2007) and the bi-annual meetings of its Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference. At their forty-second meeting (Santiago, Chile 4-5 December 2008), the Presiding Officers and other member countries reported on measures being taken in their respective countries to eliminate gender-based violence, particularly at the institutional level as well as through the media and campaigns to unit with men against violence.12 In their final agreement, they “condemn(ed) violence against women, in all its forms, including violence in conflict situations, request(ed) the support of international cooperation to strengthen efforts to eradicate such violence, and ask(ed) that specific budgets be approved to support national action plans for the prevention and punishment of gender-based violence and the provision of care to people affected by it” (par. 26 and 27).

At their forty-third meeting (Port of Spain, 7-8 July 2009), the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean reiterated their support to the attainment of the objectives of the Secretary-General’s Campaign to end violence against women and participate actively in the launch of the campaign in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2009
Background
As the regional arm of the United Nations in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC/CEPAL) contributes to the economic and social development of Member States in the region, coordinating actions directed towards this end, and reinforcing economic relationships among the countries and with the other nations of the world. In the last decade, the mainstreaming of a gender perspective in its projects and programmes has increasingly become a clear part of its mandate.
Resources
Lorena Fríes y Victoria Hurtado (2010), Estudio de la información sobre la violencia contra la mujer en América Latina y el Caribe, Serie Mujer y Desarrollo No 99, Santiago de Chile, Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (LC/L.3174-P), marzo
http://www.eclac.cl/publicaciones/xml/8/38978/Serie99.pdf

Rocío Villanueva (2010), “El registro de feminicidio del Ministerio Público del Perú” en División de Asuntos de Género, Reunión internacional sobre buenas prácticas de políticas públicas para el Observatorio de igualdad de género de América Latina y el Caribe: Memoria”, Serie Mujer y Desarrollo No 104, Santiago de Chile, Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (LC/L.3231-P), junio
http://www.eclac.cl/publicaciones/xml/7/40097/Serie104.pdf
URL
http://www.cepal.org/en/
Mail Address
Av. Dag Hammarskjöld 3477. Vitacura, Santiago, Chile
Areas of Work
ECLAC addresses all forms and manifestations of violence against women. It undertakes research and policy development and the identification of good practice examples; it implements operational activities and contributes to awareness-raising and outreach on these issues. ECLAC aims to strengthen the capacity of countries in the region to produce knowledge on gender-based violence, including the measurement of its incidence and trends.
Agency Type
SECRETARIAT
Title
Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean

Oct 2009 - Feb 2010 | ECLAC

In the framework of the interregional project, ECLAC collaborated with ECE in the development of a proposal for developing and testing a short module questionnaire on violence against women together with a proposal for the accompanying interviewer’s guide and training package. Testing of the module is being prepared by two or three pilot countries in each region.

Oct 2009 - Feb 2010 | ECLAC

ECLAC prepared an updated version of the regional interagency report on violence against women on the basis of the information available in recent demographic and health surveys. The report was presented as part of the launching of the regional chapter of the Secretary General’s Campaign to end violence against women in Guatemala City, in November 2009).

Oct 2008 - Feb 2009 | ECLAC

In order to define the basic set of indicators necessary for the functioning of the ECLAC Gender Observatory, two technical meetings were organized, with representatives from National Machineries for the Advancement of Women/Gender Affairs and National Statistical Offices of Latin America (Aguascalientes (Mexico), in October 2008) and the Caribbean (Port-of-Spain, in December 2008). Reports of both meetings were approved at the Forty-second meeting of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean (Santiago, December 2008).

Mar 2013 - Feb 2014 | ECLAC

In March 2013, ECLAC published the third report of the Gender Equality Observatory for Latin America and the Caribbean, which focuses on indicators of physical, economic and decision-making autonomy as seen against the backdrop of the regional agenda shaped by the consensuses reached at the Regional Conferences on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Observatory’s indicators of physical autonomy highlight the obstacles that women in the region face in seeking to take their own decisions about their sexuality and reproduction and to exercise their right to a life free of violence.

Mar 2012 - Jan 2013 | ECLAC

The Gender Equality Observatory for Latin America and the Carribean, supported by ECLAC, continues the analysis of homicide penalization in the region; the analysis of specific laws and policies on violence against women; and the identification of registers on femicide. ECLAC also supports the Central American Court of Justice in the creation of a Central American Regional Observatory against gender-based Violence.

Mar 2011 - Jan 2012 | ECLAC

ECLAC also, in coordination with the other Regional Commissions such as ECA, finalized in December 2011 the implementation of the interregional project “Enhancing capacities to eradicate violence against women through networking of local knowledge communities” and undertook the following activities:a) The development and testing of an international questionnaire on violence against women to be applied as a stand-alone or to be integrated as a module in population-based surveys, which contributed to the development of indicators proposed by the Friends of the Chair of the President and approved
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