Spotlight Inititative
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.
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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.