UN courts EU over Spotlight funding for women and girls

The United Nations says it is in a “show-me phase” as it presents the European Commission with the fruit of its €500 million ($578.14 million) Spotlight Initiative, designed to combat violence against women and girls. Meanwhile, talks are ramping up over what comes next, with Brussels keen to bring in other donors.

Launched in 2017, the European Union-funded, U.N.-implemented Spotlight Initiative was a way for Europe to react to the threat that former United States President Donald Trump was seen to pose to multilateralism as well as the rights of women and girls. After winning office on an “America-first” platform in 2016, Trump implemented a “global gag rule” — which was lifted this year by President Joe Biden — that prevented U.S.-funded NGOs from working on reproductive health.

EU officials at the time linked Spotlight, which has since funded advocacy, awareness-raising, and victims’ support work around the world, to Trump’s policy. But the hefty funding was also aimed at encouraging the different U.N. agencies involved, such as UNICEF, U.N. Development Programme, and UN Women, to work better together.  

Speaking with Devex this fall, Koye Adeboye, head of communications at Spotlight, cited a yet-to-be-released poll of 600 respondents from national governments, civil society, and EU delegations, which found 90% believe Spotlight has contributed to more integrated U.N. teams, and 89% believe it has increased U.N. efficiency.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres told Euronews this summer that Spotlight had supported 650,000 people, helped bring about 84 new laws to assist women and girls, and increased conviction of perpetrators by 22%.

A representative of UN Women met with development officials from EU member states in September, though declined to say what was discussed.

“We are very much in the show-me phase of the investment ... to show the results,” Adeboye told Devex, adding that work was underway to figure out how to “continue going forward.”

“A big part of the work is making sure that there's national ownership in the investment so that there's budget lines from the ministries of health or gender in the countries we're investing in to take a lot of this work on as just part of their regular delivery,” Adeboye said.

An EU official told Devex that after a slow start in project delivery, the commission is now largely happy with the initiative’s results to date. All of the initial €500 million has been allocated but will only be fully disbursed after a meeting of Spotlight’s governing body, made up of top EU and U.N. officials, to be held in the coming months.

That meeting is not expected to be controversial. More complicated is what to do beyond 2023, once all of the initial €500 million has been spent. The commission’s new funding instrument for development work through 2027 has a greater focus on geographic rather than thematic programming, meaning funds would need to be assigned through individual country plans.

Brussels is keen to encourage other donors — notably EU member states — to contribute to any future iteration of the initiative. And it wants to guarantee its own financial contribution is adequately reflected in communication efforts.

In a February policy document, the commission emphasized its concern that when funding multilateral institutions “the visibility of EU support should be ensured.”