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Access to survivor-centred, rights-based essential services is fundamental to addressing gender-based violence and breaking cycles of harm. Quality services not only provide immediate support to survivors but also reinforce prevention, protection, and justice mechanisms. The Initiative has worked to improve the availability, accessibility, and responsiveness of essential services, ensuring that women and girls–particularly those from marginalized communities–receive the support they need.
Since its inception, the Initiative helped 5.7 million women and girls gain knowledge of available services in their communities. Close to 3 million women and girls have accessed gender-based violence services, including psychosocial support, emergency shelter, medical care, legal aid, and long-term recovery assistance. Strengthening justice sector responses has also been a key focus, with conviction rates for gender-based violence doubling across 13 countries since 2019, resulting in over 13,000 convictions.
Improving service delivery requires investment in frontline responders. More than 100,000 government service providers have been trained to deliver high-quality, coordinated essential services. This training has helped integrate response to violence against women and girls across multiple sectors, ensuring that survivors receive comprehensive survivor-centred care.
- In Mali, outreach efforts led by non-governmental organization (NGO) partners expanded access to services, directly reaching 217,959 individuals across nearly 360 communities. Community engagement was a key drive of success, with 025 community leaders trained to identify and report cases of violence, participate in initiatives promoting gender equality, and advocate against all forms of violence. These efforts strengthened local accountability structures and helped establish community-led response mechanisms to prevent and address gender-based violence.
- In El Salvador, Spotlight Initiative expanded GBV service provision ensuring access to high-quality services for trans women. The Initiative provided unprecedented, targeted support to transwomen, and the LGBTI community more broadly, by helping to establish a specialized clinic delivering medical and psychological services to the trans population in-country. The clinic was successfully registered in the public health system - institutionalizing services and promoting sustainability - and officially recognised as a transgender health and sexual medicine clinic. This helped improve service provision for transwomen and generate new partnerships to support traditionally underserved communities.
- In Jamaica, the Initiative complemented ongoing efforts to establish Domestic Violence Intervention Centres (DVICs). Applying a survivor-centred approach, these centres expand access to high-quality recovery services for women and girls, particularly in rural areas, and improved long-term recovery outcomes. The establishment of DVICs, an ongoing effort of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, helps government agencies improve essential service delivery for GBV survivors, including reproductive and health services, counseling, immediate care, referrals, and access to justice. DVICs offer a safe space for women and girls to seek support without fear of judgment or reprisal.
Access to survivor-centred, rights-based essential services is fundamental to addressing gender-based violence and breaking cycles of harm. Quality services not only provide immediate support to survivors but also reinforce prevention, protection, and justice mechanisms. The Initiative has worked to improve the availability, accessibility, and responsiveness of essential services, ensuring that women and girls–particularly those from marginalized communities–receive the support they need.
Since its inception, the Initiative helped 5.7 million women and girls gain knowledge of available services in their communities. Close to 3 million women and girls have accessed gender-based violence services, including psychosocial support, emergency shelter, medical care, legal aid, and long-term recovery assistance. Strengthening justice sector responses has also been a key focus, with conviction rates for gender-based violence doubling across 13 countries since 2019, resulting in over 13,000 convictions.
Improving service delivery requires investment in frontline responders. More than 100,000 government service providers have been trained to deliver high-quality, coordinated essential services. This training has helped integrate response to violence against women and girls across multiple sectors, ensuring that survivors receive comprehensive survivor-centred care.
- In Mali, outreach efforts led by non-governmental organization (NGO) partners expanded access to services, directly reaching 217,959 individuals across nearly 360 communities. Community engagement was a key drive of success, with 025 community leaders trained to identify and report cases of violence, participate in initiatives promoting gender equality, and advocate against all forms of violence. These efforts strengthened local accountability structures and helped establish community-led response mechanisms to prevent and address gender-based violence.
- In El Salvador, Spotlight Initiative expanded GBV service provision ensuring access to high-quality services for trans women. The Initiative provided unprecedented, targeted support to transwomen, and the LGBTI community more broadly, by helping to establish a specialized clinic delivering medical and psychological services to the trans population in-country. The clinic was successfully registered in the public health system - institutionalizing services and promoting sustainability - and officially recognised as a transgender health and sexual medicine clinic. This helped improve service provision for transwomen and generate new partnerships to support traditionally underserved communities.
- In Jamaica, the Initiative complemented ongoing efforts to establish Domestic Violence Intervention Centres (DVICs). Applying a survivor-centred approach, these centres expand access to high-quality recovery services for women and girls, particularly in rural areas, and improved long-term recovery outcomes. The establishment of DVICs, an ongoing effort of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, helps government agencies improve essential service delivery for GBV survivors, including reproductive and health services, counseling, immediate care, referrals, and access to justice. DVICs offer a safe space for women and girls to seek support without fear of judgment or reprisal.