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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.
United Nations Population Fund
UNFPA is guided by and promotes the principles of the groundbreaking Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (1994), which includes the commitment that advancing gender equality and equity and the empowerment of women, and the elimination of all kinds of violence against women, and ensuring women’s ability to control their own fertility are cornerstones of population and development-related programmes.
UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is the leading UN agency dedicated to advancing a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe, and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.
UNFPA works tirelessly to further gender equality and women’s empowerment, while addressing the causes and consequences of violence against women and girls, with a particular focus on its impact on women’s sexual and reproductive health.
An Infographic Guide on Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV) (https://www.unfpa.org/publications/infographic-guide-technology-facilitated-gender-based-violence-tfgbv)
A Framework for TFGBV Programming (https://www.unfpa.org/publications/framework-tfgbv-programming)
Our Bodies, Our Rights! Addressing Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights and Gender-based Violence for Women and Young People with Disabilities (https://www.unfpa.org/publications/our-bodies-our-rights-addressing-sexual-and-reproductive-health-and-rights-and-gender)
UNFPA Strategy and Operational Plan to Scale-up and Strengthen Interventions on Gender-based Violence in Emergencies, 2023-2025: Executive Summary (https://www.unfpa.org/publications/unfpa-strategy-and-operational-plan-scale-and-strengthen-interventions-gender-based)
Flourish. UNFPA Gender-Based Violence Operational Plan: Summary (https://www.unfpa.org/publications/flourish-unfpa-gender-based-violence-operational-plan-summary)
Guidance on the Safe and Ethical Use of Technology to Address Gender-based Violence and Harmful Practices: Implementation Summary (https://www.unfpa.org/publications/implementation-summary-safe-ethical-use-technology-gbv-harmful-practices)
A Guide to Better Understanding and Using Violence Against Women Prevalence Data (https://www.unfpa.org/publications/guide-better-understanding-and-using-violence-against-women-prevalence-data)
2022 Global Symposium on Technology-facilitated Gender-based Violence Results: Building a Common Pathway (https://www.unfpa.org/publications/2022-global-symposium-technology-facilitated-gender-based-violence-results-building)
Measuring technology-facilitated gender-based violence. A discussion paper (https://www.unfpa.org/publications/measuring-technology-facilitated-gender-based-violence-discussion-paper)
Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence: Feminist Design (https://www.unfpa.org/resources/technology-facilitated-gender-based-violence-feminist-design)
Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence: Rights-Based Regulation (https://www.unfpa.org/resources/technology-facilitated-gender-based-violence-rights-based-regulation)
Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence: Data and Measurement (https://www.unfpa.org/resources/technology-facilitated-gender-based-violence-data-and-measurement)
Addressing Gender-Based Violence Across Contexts: Gender-Based Violence Interagency (https://www.unfpa.org/publications/addressing-gender-based-violence-across-contexts-gender-based-violence-interagency)
Addressing Gender-Based Violence Across Contexts: Gender-Based Violence Interagency Minimum Standards and the Essential Services Package for Women and Girls Subject to Violence (https://www.unfpa.org/publications/unfpa-implementation-essential-services-package-women-and-girls-subject-violence)
Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence: Making All Spaces Safe (https://www.unfpa.org/publications/technology-facilitated-gender-based-violence-making-all-spaces-safe)
Getting to Zero: Mapping UNFPA Leadership on Ending Gender-based Violence (https://www.unfpa.org/publications/getting-to-zero)
Reporting on Gender-Based Violence in Humanitarian Settings: A Journalist’s Handbook (https://www.unfpa.org/publications/reporting-gender-based-violence-humanitarian-settings-journalists-handbook)
The RESPECT framework: https://respect-prevent-vaw.org/
The Inter-Agency Minimum Standards for Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies Programming (https://www.unfpa.org/publications/inter-agency-minimum-standards-gender-based-violence-emergencies-programming)
Essential Services Package for Women and Girls Subject to Violence (https://www.unfpa.org/publications/essential-services-package-women-and-girls-subject-violence)
Minimum Standards for Prevention and Response to Gender-based Violence in Emergencies (https://www.unfpa.org/publications/minimum-standards-prevention-and-response-gender-based-violence-emergencies-0)
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It remains a strategic priority for UNFPA to prevent and respond to gender-based violence across humanitarian, peace and development settings, including eliminating harmful practices such as female genital mutilation, child marriage and gender-biased sex slection. UNFPA supports comprehensive, survivor-centred responses in humanitarian, development, and peace-responsive actions across more than 150 countries. In 2023, UNFPA invested $505 million in initiatives to eliminate GBV and harmful practices.
UNFPA’s Work on GBV:
Advocacy/Policy:
UNFPA collaborates with national and international stakeholders to address gaps in legislation and law enforcement related to GBV and harmful practices. It supports the development of culturally sensitive, rights-based policies and plans for GBV prevention and response, with a strong emphasis on integrating these efforts into the health sector. UNFPA also works to align national frameworks with international agreements such as the SDGs, CEDAW and the Beijing Platform for Action.
Capacity Development:
UNFPA partners with women’s and youth feminist organizations, civil society, governments, and other stakeholders to transform harmful gender and social norms to promote gender equality in families, communities and institutions. . It focuses on building the capacity of governments, civil society, and service providers to respond and prevent GBV, across the social services, health, legal and justice and education sectors.
Data and Evidence Generation:
UNFPA plays a critical role in collecting, analyzing, and utilizing data to understand the prevalence, incidence, and impact of GBV worldwide. It partners with national statistics offices and relevant ministries to strengthen national data systems and ensure the ethical collection of GBV-related data. Through initiatives like kNOwVAWdata UNFPA provides technical support and capacity building for evidence-based policymaking in several regions and languages.
In humanitarian settings, UNFPA co-leads the Gender-Based Violence Information Management System (GBVIMS), which harmonizes data collection across 25 crisis contexts. An adapted version of GBVIMS is also used in development settings to safely collect, store, analyze, and share survivor-reported data. These efforts ensure that data informs decision-making, resource allocation, and the development of effective GBV prevention and response programmes.
Service Delivery:
UNFPA promotes a survivor-centred integrated approach to addressing GBV through dynamic systems of prevention, protection, and response, including through sexual and reproductive health services. It strengthens survivors’ access to quality health care, social services, and legal and justice support, guided by the Essential Services Package for Women and Girls Subject to Violence and the Interagency Minimum Standards on Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies Programming. UNFPA also leads the Gender-Based Violence Area of Responsibility (GBV AoR) under the Inter-Agency Standing Committee, coordinating global and national efforts to address GBV interventions in humanitarian settings.
From 2023 to 2026, with the support of Takeda, UNFPA is implementing the Women at the Center programme, which strengthens case management and professional social-service workforce capacities in Azerbaijan, El Salvador, Indonesia, Madagascar, and Zimbabwe.
Preventing GBV:
UNFPA works to dismantle harmful social and gender norms that perpetuate inequality and violence. It implements prevention programming as outlined in the RESPECT framework, partnering with UN Women, WHO, and UNDP. UNFPA also promotes comprehensive sexuality education as a primary prevention tool, fostering gender-equitable attitudes among adolescents to reduce violence and promote healthier relationships.UNFPA also engages communities, including men and boys in advancing gender equality and ending harmful practices, while remaining accountable to feminist movements.
Responding to GBV Across Contexts:
UNFPA supports comprehensive, survivor-centred responses in both humanitarian and development settings, ensuring access to health care, social services, and legal support. Its initiatives are guided by the Flourish: UNFPA Gender-Based Violence Operational Plan and the UNFPA Strategy and Operational Plan to Scale Up and Strengthen Interventions on Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies 2023–2025. UNFPA also addresses the growing intersections between GBV, climate change, protracted crises, and population movements, working across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus to strengthen preparedness, resilience, and long-term development.
Addressing Technology-Facilitated GBV (TFGBV):
UNFPA has been leading work on addressing TFGBV since 2021 with publication of Making All Spaces Safe: Technology-facilitated GBV and have now launched the Making All Spaces Safe global programme (2024–2027), with the support of Global Affairs Canada, to tackle this issue. This initiative focuses on addressing TFGBV through comprehensive, survivor-centred programming. It integrates digital literacy into prevention and response mechanisms, advocates for rights-based law reform, and promotes safety-by-design standards to mitigate harm. The programme is being implemented globally, with a focus on Kenya and Benin, to address the evolving nature of GBV in digital spaces. UNFPA are also leading the Safety Showcase: Re-imagining Gender in Technology with the support the United Kingdom to highlight tech products, policies and features that represent gender at the centre of design and deployment.
Global Initiatives and Partnerships:
UNFPA is a key partner in the UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women, supporting civil society initiatives worldwide. It also actively participates in the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, advocating for increased activism to ensure women and girls can live free from violence and coercion. Through its global programmes and partnerships, UNFPA continues to set standards for survivor-centred care and drive transformative change to end GBV in all its forms.
UNFPA plays a crucial role in supporting international legal and policy development on GBV through its active contribution to global frameworks, advocacy for key resolutions, and provision of technical expertise to shape international policies.
Key Contributions and Global Frameworks
As the IASC-mandated agency for coordinating GBV prevention and response in emergencies, UNFPA leads the GBV AoR and coordinates GBV sub-clusters in 32 humanitarian contexts. UNFPA is also a core member of the IASC GBV Guidelines Reference Group strengthening the integration of measures to mitigate risks of GBV across all sectors in humanitarian action.
UNFPA has demonstrated capacity to adapt to the new circumstances derived from the COVID- 19 pandemic. Almost all UNFPA offices, that is 99% of offices in 108 countries, have adapted their GBV interventions to this new context.
GBV is increasingly a characteristic of conflict and is often perpetrated against women and girls; and, in some instances, has been used as a tactic of war, UNFPA collaborates with the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict and is a member of the Steering Committee as well as the Expert Advisory Group. UNFPA contributions are to ensure the particular needs of adolescent girls and women as a result of sexual violence are factored in efforts of the Special Representative to address reintegration.
In the East and Southern Africa Region, UNFPA and WHO co-developed and co-facilitated a joint training to support integrated SRHR and GBV services. The 6-week training had around 90 participants from 14 countries in East and Southern Africa.
As of August 2021, 128 participants from 35 countries are enrolled in the kNOwVAWdata course, to develop and strengthen their skills on safe and ethical VAW data collection, analysis and reporting.
UNFPA supports the global geospatial knowledge platform to assist in knowledge sharing related to the prevalence of intimate partner violence for 119 countries and their subregions. A geospatial dashboard on IPV was launched in December 2020, and an accompanying report on IPV data was published in May 2021.
UNFPA provides support, in terms of funding, knowledge management and capacity development to 98 countries, as they implement the Essential Services Package for women and girls subject to violence. In 2021, UNFPA in partnership with other UN agencies published a seventh module of ESP which provides guidance on estimating resource requirements for a minimum package of services.
UNFPA works largely in implementing prevention programmes that transform gender and social norms, as the root causes of gender-based violence. UNFPA, jointly with UNICEF, led the development of the social norms manual.
UNFPA engages in advocacy and policy dialogue at national, regional and global levels, to accelerate action towards ending gender-based violence and harmful practices. By the end of 2020, as many as 114 UNFPA Regional and Country Offices were involved in strengthening national legislation and policy.
UNFPA works in partnerships with governments to develop legislation that is responsive to the needs of survivors and that is aligned with international laws and human rights standards. UNFPA provides technical, human and financial resources to support the development of national laws and largely engages with governments. By the end of 2020, as much as 96% of UNFPA Country Offices were involved in strengthening national legislation and policy.