Prevention, Including Awareness Raising and Advocacy

Violence against women and girls and harmful practices are rooted in harmful social norms, beliefs, and attitudes. To address this, Spotlight Initiative supported prevention strategies that promoted equality and inclusion, including campaigns to end violence against women and transform harmful social norms, beliefs, and attitudes, as well as educational tools.

For example, the Initiative helped develop the mobile app Secrets of Sary Kol, an innovative approach to the prevention of child or forced marriage in Kyrgyzstan. Co-designed with adolescent girls, the game improves players’ understanding of child marriage as a crime, offers suggestions of how to support those encountering child marriage, and raises girls’ confidence to refuse forced unions and make independent decisions. Selected as a finalist in the international competition Games for Change, Secrets of Sary Kol has raised awareness on child or forced marriage and promoted a shift in attitudes and behaviours on gender equality and violence against women and girls in Kyrgyzstan.

Engaging men and boys is a critical strategy for changing behaviours and ending violence against women and girls. With the Initiative’s support, nearly 6 million men and boys have received information on positive masculinity, respectful family relationships, and non-violent conflict resolution. Additionally, over 8,000 villages and communities across 17 Spotlight Initiative programmes have established advocacy platforms to promote gender-equitable norms, attitudes, and behaviours. 

Over the course of the Initiative, over 800 campaigns — organized through events, social media, TV, newspapers, and radio — were launched across 32 countries, reaching an audience of nearly 384 million with locally designed messages and behaviour change methodologies. Additionally, over 6 million people participated in community dialogues supported by the Initiative, fostering change at the community level in harmful social norms, stereotypes, and behaviours over time. 

In Niger, for example, following the African Girls Summit in 2021, the feminist organization Fada de Filles (Girls' Fada) was founded, with the Initiative’s support. A "Fada" is a community space for dialogue, decision-making, and solidarity traditionally reserved for men and boys. Spotlight Initiative supported young girls to “appropriate” this concept and create their own space to raise awareness, and publicly advocate for social norm change. In the spirit of peer-to-peer mentoring, the "Fada des Filles" brings together young girls from various professional and academic backgrounds who lead discussions on a range of intersecting issues - including female genital mutilation, gender-based violence, menstrual hygiene management, and climate change and disaster risk reduction - and advocate for gender responsive solutions (i.e. solutions that center gender equality). These girls serve as role models and "elders" for other young girls and boys, helping to transform social norms and promote gender equality in their communities over time. 

In Honduras, the Cure Violence model was implemented in areas that had a high prevalence of gang wars and trafficking networks. It focused on changing norms through community dialogues, with violence interrupters spending more than over 43,000 hours working with various community members to change social and gender norms over time. Through this work under the Cure Violence model, violence interrupters averted nearly 1,800 volatile incidents involving more than 724 women and girls across 25 neighborhoods in the Choloma and San Pedro Sula areas of Honduras. Out of the total cases managed, nearly 65 per cent of them involved the prevention of femicide. 

UNHCR's GBV Policy institutionalizes the commitment to strengthening its advocacy and effective partnership with governments, diversifying partnerships with women refugee-led organizations, supporting localization, contributing to the establishment of GVB inter-agency coordination and combatting unequal gender norms that normalize and legitimize violence against women and girls.

Prevention programming and awareness-raising initiatives are implemented by UNHCR's operations with the aim of addressing all aspects of prevention, including through transforming systems and harmful social norms. Models such as SASA!, EMAP (Engaging Men through Accountable Practice) and ZTVA (Zero Tolerance Village Alliance) have been rolled-out in numerous field operations.

UNHCR has global partnerships with Raising Voices and International Rescue Committee with a focus to increase the capacity of staff working on prevention programming.

UNHCR will partner with Voice Amplified to undertake a project focused on mentoring WLOs on assessment design and data collection to conduct their own analysis of the refugee women and girl priorities and perspectives. This will be coupled with a mentoring initiative to increase WLOs access to funding through donor relations and resource mobilization opportunities. Participants will be included in a global knowledge hub to allow for networking and to further sustain their advocacy and funding opportunities beyond the project lifespan.

Following UN Action’s publication ‘Early Warning Indicators of CRSV Matrix’, which lists the early warning signs that allow prompt action to prevent instances of CRSV, and its socialisation in-country, UN Action developed and launched the Framework for the Prevention of CRSV, which serves as guidance to better understand what it means, and what it takes, to prevent conflict-related sexual violence at its onset (primary prevention) and to prevent further harm from happening once it has occurred (secondary prevention). UN Action piloted the roll-out of the Prevention Framework in Ukraine in 2023, and is anticipating further implementation in other situations of concern. 

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 works on comprehensive sexuality education as a GBV prevention strategy in more than 95 countries.  In December 2020, under the Spotlight Programme in the Pacific - comprising 11 island states - UNFPA launched the 2020 International Technical and Programmatic Guidance on Out-of-School Comprehensive Sexuality Education, which has created a momentum across the region at the highest possible levels of political and faith-based leadership. In June 2021, UNFPA and the Joint Learning Initiative on Faith and Local Communities organized a webinar with almost 300 attendees, on GBV prevention through CSE and the importance of engaging religious leaders and faith-based organizations.

UNFPA prevention efforts take an inclusive approach by engaging with men and boys and promoting positive masculinities that challenge gender inequality in 107 countries. Similarly, UNFPA implements gender-transformative programmes in 114 regional and country offices across all regions.

UNFPA GBV prevention efforts are guided by the RESPECT framework, co-produced with WHO and UN Women in 2019. 

UNFPA, in partnership with other UN agencies and organisations, supports more than 20 countries to implement programmes aimed at eliminating and ending harmful practices. 

The Ending Female Genital Mutilation Programme applies a gender-transformative approach to eliminate FGM, through which since 2008 30,182 communities, representing 42.4 million people, have publicly declared the abandonment of the practice, while 35.9 million people have participated in education, sensitization, and social mobilization sessions; and 69.6 million listeners have been reached through radio and TV programmes that promote the elimination of FGM.

The Global Programme to End Child Marriage since 2016 has empowered 7.2 million adolescent girls; provided education support to 500,000 adolescent girls; reached 4.2 million individuals through community dialogue and 31 million through media campaigns; assisted 24,000 facilities to implement adolescent girl-friendly health and protection services; and, enabled 22,000 schools to strengthen adolescent girl-friendly education.

UNFPA is also widely engaged in advocacy efforts and awareness-raising through online and offline activities. UNFPA is partnering with the Center for Women’s Global Leadership to advance the 16 Days Campaign, with a renewed focus on shifting from 16 days of activism to 365 days of accountability. And in advancing the GBV Disruptor initiative and the social media campaign - #IAmAGBVDisruptor.

Following the Generation Equality Forum in 2021, where UNFPA led the Action Coalition on Bodily Autonomy and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, a number of commitments were made to advance bodily autonomy, eliminate harmful practices and end GBV, including to empower women and girls in all of their diversity to make autonomous decisions about their bodies, sexuality and reproduction; and to end child marriage and female genital mutilation by scaling up what works. UNFPA also participates in the Gender-based violence action coalition and it’s committed to strengthen availability of and capacity to use data for ending GBV; to strengthen multi-stakeholder services to support victims and survivors of gender-based violence; and to strengthen prevention of gender-based violence.

As part of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence yearly campaign, UNODC promoted several awareness-raising initiatives, including: 

• Algeria:  launch of a short movie with famous male influencers expressing support to women victims of violence 
• Namibia:  launch of the National Namibian Gender Base Violence Database. Developed with the support of UNODC, the Database uses administrative data to track the outcomes of a reported case along the multisectoral continuum of care, to its criminal process outcomes. 

 Other activities: 

• UNODC in collaboration with Mauritania organized a campaign in Mauritanian high schools to combat unconscious gender stereotypes and create vocations to the professions of defense, security, and justice among young Mauritanian girls. 
• UNODC organized three awareness-raising sessions on Prisoner and Human Rights for Women and Juvenile Inmates with the Sindh Prison Department in Pakistan. 
• Cambodia: UNODC raised awareness on support available for victims though a six-month public information campaign.  
• Mexico:  UNODC joined the conversation on how sport can be a vehicle towards gender equality in the podcast Cancha Naranja, tu espacio seguro. This podcast addresses the different strategies to eradicate violence and gender inequalities both on and off the playing field. 

 Within the framework of the joint programme “HAYA: Eliminating violence against women in the West Bank and Gaza Strip”, UNODC conducted an awareness-raising campaign that promoted essential services available to victims and survivors of gender-based violence in the State of Palestine. The Office also organized six awareness-raising workshops for service providers dealing with survivors and victims of violence.  

The prevention of violence against women and girls through changes in behaviours, practices and attitudes is a core strategic priority of the UN Trust Fund, and one of the three outcome areas in its Strategic Plan 2021-2025.

Between 2021 and 2024, an average of 80% of initiatives supported by the UN Trust Fund per year included strategies to prevent violence against women and girls.

In the same period, grantee partners engaged 39,261 community leaders, 7,325 faith leaders, 11,843 traditional leaders and 16,702 youth leaders to publicly advocate for changes in behaviours, practices and attitudes towards violence against women and girls, including changing harmful practices.

Almost 361,000 women and girls were supported between 2021 and 2024 to build skills and capacities in self-efficacy, agency, assertiveness and self-confidence through support from UN Trust Fund grantees (for example, through economic and social empowerment initiatives as a protective factor against violence against women and girls). An average of 316 evidence and/or practice-based methodologies, approaches or models were developed and/or implemented every year to achieve or advance changes in behaviour and social norms aimed at preventing violence against women and girls through UN Trust Fund grantees.

For instance, in 2024, Leap Girl Africa used podcast and in-person sessions with couples in Cameroon to foster dialogue and reflection within intimate partnerships, helping challenge harmful beliefs about gender roles and redefine what healthy, equitable relationships can look like. The intervention led to measurable shifts in social norms and reported rates of emotional and physical intimate partner violence nearly halved within three months. Jan Sahas in India established balika panchayats (girls' councils) that engaged 1,542 girls in leadership development, equipping them with legal literacy and negotiation skills. They also conducted awareness sessions for men and boys addressing issues such as consent. School-based programmes reached 23,498 students. 

UNDP implemented various activities for raising awareness and advocacy to prevent VAWG at both national and local level throughout the year. Through massive events, sessions and campaigns held in cooperation with national authorities and civil societies around the world, thousands of participants were provided with information on types of violence, prevention measures, as well as current laws and state programmes to prevent domestic violence.

UNDP Libya Co-organized a webinar on the topic of Violence Against Women in Elections aimed at bringing together the Libyan High National Election Commission (HNEC), civil society organizations and other stakeholders around a discussion on violence against women in elections and efforts to enhance women’s electoral participation. The webinar was an opportunity to raise awareness and interest in the efforts of election stakeholders to protect women’s electoral participation and discuss avenues for effective cooperation and collaboration between government and non-government entities towards accelerating progress for violence against women in elections.

UNDP India organised dialogues with civil society organisations to better understand ground reality from the context of different population groups. Along similar lines, the office  advocated for the inclusion of Redress to GBV as an essential service.

In 2024, IOM in alignment with institutional commitments made against the 2021-2025 roadmap of the Call to Action to protect against GBV in emergencies, advanced gender equality and the prevention of gender-based violence through our programmatic interventions aimed at protective outcomes. Recognizing that gender inequality and power imbalances lie at the root causes of GBV, IOM has further reinforced the third pillar of the Institutional Framework for Addressing GBV in Crises, which focuses on GBV prevention. This effort has been achieved through a key partnership with Raising Voices enabling IOM to implement the SASA! Together approach, an evidence-based community mobilization methodology that supports communities in creating positive and sustainable changes in social norms that perpetuate violence against women.   

The approach has been piloted at both community level and using an institutional strengthening modality by four IOM Country Offices including Bangladesh, South Sudan, Iraq, and Pakistan. In 2024, IOM conducted its second training on SASA! Together, focusing on the critical fundamentals of the “Set Up” and “Start” phases of the methodology. This training equipped IOM staff and partners across 17 countries with the tools and knowledge to implement the structured approach in their respective contexts

Prevention, Including Awareness-Raising and Advocacy Under the Spotlight Initiative, UNICEF worked on Outcome 3 (Prevention) in 8 African countries and 3 Latin American countries. Community engagement was the main activity. Social norm change was also promoted through education-related activities and media advocacy. Youth engagement was carried out through U-report too.

16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence is an organization wide day supported across HQ, Regional and Country Offices. This includes greater advocacy amongst staff members to be agents of change and to better understand the issue to address in their respective programmes.

WFP is also a member of the Protection Clusters in Country across various contexts. This provides a platform to share experiences, raise concerns and find collective solutions to address common issues. WFP is also a member of the Global Protection Cluster since December 2019 – which will enable great voice and agency to better coordinate at a global level. 

In Nepal, technical trainings including GESI specific tailored sessions including PSEA and SH are developed and planned to roll out starting in 2020.