Agencies
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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.
In 2016, WFP has carried out a massive in-house sensitisation campaign for its own staff on Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse. Also, a total of 100 protection/gender focal points from different Country Offices were trained on protection. The training covers gender-based violence and aims at building people's capacities for the integration of protection measures in food assistance programs, including GBV related measures.
The WFP Men Stand for Gender Equality Movement was founded by 24 male WFP colleagues during the 16 days of activism in 2015. Its members have been increasing ever since at HQ, Regional Bureaus and especially in the Country Offices, and the movement has been growing. In November 2016, the South Sudan Country Office launched its own ‘WFP Men Stand for Gender Equality’ initiative, and as of January 2017, the movement counts 322 members.
UNRWA developed and finalized the new Gender Equality Strategy (2016-2021), 'Integrating Gender, Improving Services, Impacting Lives.' The new strategy consolidates gender mainstreaming in the Agency’s organizational processes and programmes and aims at improving service delivery and reducing vulnerabilities among Palestine refugee women, men, boys, and girls. In this light, it serves to guide and frame all gender-related work by the Agency, including work on GBV.
In Somalia, UNODC is implementing a project funded by UN ACTION to pilot the UNODC/WHO tool on strengthening the medico-legal response to sexual violence. Police officers were trained on criminal justice response to gender-based violence in conflict.
UNHCR's Guidelines on International Protection No. 12 on Claims for Refugee Status Related to Situations of Armed Conflicts and Violence, issued in December 2016, provide substantive guidance for assessing claims to refugee status related to situations of armed conflict and violence in accordance with the 1951 Convention and 1967 Protocol as well as the broader regional refugee criteria. Specific reference is made to refugee protection from sexual and gender-based violence as this common is a form of persecution in many situations of armed conflict and violence. (http://www.refworld.org/docid/583595ff4.html)
UNHCR deploys Senior Protection Officers (SPOs) with expertise in SGBV to UNHCR operations around the world. These UNHCR staff work for an average of six months per deployment to prioritize SGBV prevention and response at the onset of emergencies. To evaluate the deployment scheme, UNHCR developed a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) framework around a set of 47 essential actions across sectors that – when fully implemented – are deemed most effective at preventing and responding to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) during humanitarian emergencies.
UN Women organized an international seminar on Gender Based Violence (GBV) in the Gaza Strip in September 2016 with 350 participants representing local and international actors working on GBV including governmental actors, INGOs, UN agencies, humanitarian sectors and clusters, NGOs (from the West bank and Gaza), donors and academics. During two days, participants shared current challenges and opportunities with regards to integrated response to GBV in Gaza, and exchanged national and international experiences around GBV prevention and response in humanitarian settings with the aim of developing concrete, context-specific recommendations for GBV programming in Palestine. The seminar generated very important recommendations including the need to have better inclusion of GBV prevention and response in all stages of humanitarian action in Palestine and the importance of increasing the accountability of different actors to prioritize GBV prevention and response during and after emergencies.
UN Women, in collaboration with the governments of El Salvador and Sweden, launched the global study "Preventing conflicts, transforming justice, ensuring peace" in the Americas at a high level event in El Salvador in April of 2016. This is a report on the implementation of the Resolution 1325, which highlights the participation of women in security issues. The results of the research strengthen and recognize the power of women's peace-building interventions, and show that women's inclusion improves effectiveness in humanitarian assistance, strengthens efforts to build peace and the economic recovery of countries. As part of the activity, two forum panels took place and provided the space to share experiences on the application of 1325 in various countries of the world.
Under the Women, Peace and Security Program, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between UN Women and the Iraqi Ministry of Interior, through the Directorate General for CVAW in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq which has notably influenced Yezidi Religious Leaders to declare acceptance of the women and girls who were assaulted and raped by ISIL elements back to their communities. UN Women, NGO partners, Baghdad Women Association, and Women Empowerment Organization were able to document cases of violence for advocacy purposes with media, government and foreign dignitaries, established Alliance 1325 and pressed for the Emergency Operation Room to elevate support and protection for women and girls in the face of ISIL. These NGOs, the Alliance, UN Women CSAG along with other CSOs were able to lobby for the emergence of a women machinery heralded in 2017 as Women Empowerment Department in Baghdad replacing the dismantled Ministry of Women.
In Kosovo, OHCHR conducted research on potential conflict related SGBV (Sexual and Gender Based Violence) survivors among non-majority communities in Kosovo. The research included desk review of all relevant documents, meetings and interviews with all stakeholders that might possess information including governmental entities, victim associations, international organizations and religious communities. It enabled access to information about 51 potential non-majority survivors. The follow-up consist in contacting survivors and facilitating verification of status and subsequent access to reparation programs.