Spotlight Initiative

The United Nations and the European Union have combined their efforts to strategically eradicate this societal ill, in keeping with the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the European Union's global human rights priority to achieve gender equality.

The Spotlight Initiative Programme is currently being implemented in Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Pacific, and the Caribbean.

The EU contribution to Guyana will be 4.5 million Euros over three years (approximately GYD$1 billion) to invest in strategic and catalytic interventions to address the root causes and holistically address gender-based violence and family violence, employing innovative approaches involving state and government institutions, civil society organizations, communities, private sector, and women movements.  

Pillars

The Spotlight initiative will be implemented under six pillars.

• Pillar 1 will address legislative and policy framework in line with international human rights standards on all forms of violence against women and girls; 
• Pillar 2 speaks to building national and sub-national systems and institutions to plan, fund, and deliver evidence-based programmes that prevent and respond to violence against women and girls; 
• Pillar 3 is directed at gender inequitable social norms, attitudes, and behaviors change at the community and individual levels; 
• Pillar 4 focuses on responsive services for women and girls to use available, accessible, acceptable, and quality essential services, including for long term recovery from violence; 
• Pillar 5 seeks to deliver quality, disaggregated, and globally comparable data on different forms of violence against women and girls in line with international standards to inform laws, policies, and programmes; and 
• Pillar 6 gives prominence to women's rights groups, autonomous social movements, and CSOs, including those representing youth and groups facing multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination/marginalization.

Target Areas

This programme will have a national focus and community-level interventions under pillars 3 and 4 in selected regions and communities:

• Region 1: Matthews Ridge and Baramita
• Region 4: Mon Repos-Lusignan (East Coast Demerara) and Diamond/Golden Grove (East Bank Demerara)
• Region 6: Central New Amsterdam: Angoys Avenue and Port Mourant-Tain
• Region 7: Batavia and Waramadong