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Good practice

Spotlight Initiative — Eliminating Violence Against Women and Girls in Belize

Belize · Belize City · See the Belize profile

EU-UN Spotlight Initiative in Belize (2020–2023, US$3.5M): reached 50,000+ people, trained 3,500+ teachers, supported 28,000+ survivors' service access, and helped drive a 2020 Domestic Violence Act amendment — despite COVID-19 and hurricane delays.

3.5 US$ million
Total funding (direct Spotlight funding) (2020-2023)
~4.4 US$ million
Total funding incl. UN agency co-contributions (2020-2023)
50,000+
People reached via community, school and workplace interventions (2020-2023)
3,500+
Teachers trained in mandatory child-abuse/family-violence reporting protocols (2020-2023)
300,000+
People reached by gender-norm campaigns (2020-2023)
28,000+
Women/girl survivors with increased knowledge of essential services (2020-2023)
3
Safe houses with strengthened support capacity (2020-2023)
54
Survivors receiving direct accompaniment or longer-term recovery support (2020-2023)

Details

Maturity
Discontinued
Promoter
European Union / UN Belize Country Team (UNDP, UN Women, UNFPA, UNICEF, PAHO/WHO), Government of Belize
Period
2020–2023
Keywords
gender-based violence, VAWG, domestic violence law, survivor services, Caribbean

Context

The Spotlight Initiative in Belize (2020–2023) was the Belizean component of the EU-UN Spotlight Initiative, the world's largest targeted global partnership to eliminate violence against women and girls (VAWG). It was implemented by UNDP, UN Women, UNFPA, UNICEF and PAHO/WHO in partnership with Belize's Ministry of Human Development, Family Support and Gender Affairs, the National Women's Commission, and more than a dozen civil society organisations, funded with US$3.5 million in direct Spotlight funding (roughly US$4.4 million including UN agency co-contributions).

Objectives

The programme aimed to reduce violence against women and girls in Belize through community, school and workplace interventions, strengthen survivor services, and support legal and policy reform.

Activities

Activities included community, school and workplace VAWG interventions; training teachers in mandatory child-abuse and family-violence reporting protocols; gender-norm awareness campaigns; strengthening survivor service capacity at safe houses; and a coalition-based funding mechanism to help grassroots CSOs meet UN grant-compliance requirements.

Results

The programme reported reaching over 50,000 people, training more than 3,500 teachers, running campaigns reaching over 300,000 people, and giving more than 28,000 survivors increased knowledge of services; 54 survivors received direct accompaniment or recovery support and three safe houses had their capacity strengthened. It also contributed to the 2020 amendment of Belize's Domestic Violence Act, a Disabilities Bill, and an updated 2024–2030 National Gender-Based Violence Action Plan.

Conclusions

Implementation was repeatedly disrupted by COVID-19 and Hurricanes Eta and Iota, and the programme's own final report flags ongoing sustainability risk and funding gaps for retaining trained staff after the programme closed. No independent academic evaluation of outcomes was located; all figures derive from UN/EU self-reporting.

Implementation

Implementation detail (cost, timeline, staffing, conditions for success) is not yet available for this practice.

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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