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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.
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.
International Organization for Migration
IOM's approach to addressing GBV is guided by the principles set out in IOM’s Institutional Framework for Addressing Gender-Based Violence in Crises (2018, “GBV in crisis framework”). Furthermore, in 2024 IOM launched a new Gender Equality Policy (having been adopted in late 2023). The IOM Gender Equality Policy 2024 emphasizes a “whole of organisation” approach, highlighting the importance of integrating gender considerations into all areas of IOM's work. This policy builds on previous progress and embodies an evidence and results-based approach that contributes to achieving institutional commitments on gender equality. The policy includes a focus on programmatic results from gender mainstreaming and targeted interventions including to address GBV, as well as enabling factors such as funding allocation, capacity requirements and achieving gender parity.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is committed to the principle that humane and orderly migration benefits migrants and society. While not part of the United Nations system, IOM maintains close working relations with United Nations bodies and operational agencies, as well as with a wide range of international and non-governmental organizations. In addition, IOM is the designated cluster leader for camp management in humanitarian settings for natural disasters. Through its gender equality policy adopted in 2015, IOM is committed to ensuring that a gender perspective is mainstreamed throughout all IOM policies, activities and programming.
IOM (2020). Displacement Tracking Matrix for GBV.
IOM (2024). Intersectional Gender Analysis Toolkit.
IOM (2024). Gender Equality Policy.
17, Route des Morillons. CH-1211 Geneva 19. Switzerland
IOM primarily focuses on the three pillars of the GBV in crisis framework: mitigating risks, supporting survivors and addressing the root causes. However, IOM also works on human trafficking, predominately affecting women survivors. Furthermore, IOM’s approach includes ensuring that actions are taken to mainstream GBV across all IOM programmes, promoting safe and ethical GBV-related data collection, and strengthening engagement with women-led and women’s rights organizations to address GBV and promote gender equality.
IOM’s efforts to improve the capacity to identify GBV risks continued, including through the use of the Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM). The DTM is a system that regularly captures, processes and disseminates multi-layered primary data and information on the mobility, locations, vulnerabilities and needs of displaced populations at national, regional and global levels, now contains protection and GBV risk indicators.
IOM's Migration Health Department (MHD) continues to integrate gender equality and GBV in various aspects, including starting the development its handbook on Community Based Psychosocial Support in Emergencies. The manual will include reference to specialized MHPSS support for GBV survivors in emergency settings. CCCM-MHPSS training tools have also been developed and piloted to support closer collaboration between CCCM and MHPSS teams in field locations, like Northern Nigeria.
In line with commitments to the global Call to Action and in accordance with the GBV Guidelines, IOM continues to work to improve GBV prevention and risk mitigation in emergency response operations worldwide. Efforts are geared towards the needs of front-line field staff and, to this end, experts from global support teams in Headquarters deploy experts to provide technical and coordination support to field offices to strengthen GBV prevention.
IOM’s reparations programmes are supporting governments to identify and rehabilitate survivors through dedicated trainings for professionals and by promoting sensitive and non-stigmatizing services. These tools and services are embedded in a holistic mechanism that encompasses psychosocial, physical and social rehabilitation with transitional justice and memory preservation/validation.
IOM is supporting the development of Interagency GBV Minimum Standards.
In line with commitments made to the global Call to Action on Protection from GBV in Emergencies (Call to Action), IOM has started the development of its first institutional framework in GBV in Crises (GBViC). The framework will articulate IOM’s approach to GBV in crises, define the scope IOM’s GBV response, and help IOM missions to operationalize commitments to protect populations crisis-affected populations from GBV.
IOM continues to host a Training Specialist from the IASC GBV Guidelines Implementation Support Team. The Specialist has, among other things, co-facilitated GBV Guidelines Rollout Trainings in Guatemala and El Salvador, and helped develop guidance for non-GBV specialists on how to respond supportively to a GBV disclosure in field locations where no direct GBV services are available.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, IOM is working with various UN, government and NGO partners to identify and address gaps in existing care, support and justice systems, and create an effective, comprehensive and standardized approach to assisting survivors of conflict-related sexual violence. The project aims to shed light on the drivers of high rates of sexual violence in conflict situations, but also how sexual violence impedes the full restoration of peace in post-conflict societies.
In Belarus, in partnership with UNFPA, UNICEF and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, IOM provided tools and technical assistance to NGOs to improve national capacity to counteract and prevent domestic violence, especially against women and children. This project launched a Pilot Seminar on the relationship between domestic violence and trafficking in women and children. Counter-trafficking NGOs, judges, prosecutors, law-enforcement officials and representatives of the border troops of Belarus participated in this event.
In the Central African Republic, IOM is working to prevent SGBV among internally-displaced and host populations. IOM is building capacity among National Police and Gendarmerie forces to respond adequately to SGBV case reports, in coordination with UN Civil Police / CIVPOL. In this effort, IOM is also advocating for the increased recruitment of female police officers. These efforts will provide police with the tools to use a survivor-centred approach, as well as educate them in relation to Central African legislation and international human rights law on rape as a war crime.