Spotlight Initiative partners convened for their second quarterly meeting recently to discuss engagement strategies for the rest of 2023 as the anti-violence program winds down. 

Meeting from 21-23 June 2023, the partners in the European Union (EU)-funded program met in an effort to promote strategic engagement with all relevant partners, to ensure meaningful participation of civil societies and boost existing efforts to end violence against women and girls (EVAWG) in Samoa.

The program comes to an end in December and the meeting addressed areas such as program delivery, funding and achievements over the last phase of this initiative. The civil society organisation and national reference group (CSO-NRG) reviewed their engagement approach with partners within Spotlight Initiative and outside with the potential to sustain, enhance and improve national efforts for EVAWG at all levels.

The approach to the strategy is to utilise symbolic Samoan cultural components to socialise this tool for all to use. These Samoan cultural components work in complementary to each other and so is the essence of this engagement strategy.

Applying a cultural approach through symbolism and markers of the different stages of engagement supports the CSO-NRG and civil society make sense of why there is a need to engage and the added value effective engagement brings to the initiative and other efforts for EVAWG.

Some of the objectives of these meetings were to strengthen sustained engagement with partners and the success stories of the Spotlight Initiative program outcomes for women and girls in Samoa.

The session included featured speakers for expert knowledge exchange from the Deputy Secretary for the National Council of Churches Papalii Rev. Sonja Hunter, the C.E.O. of the Ministry of Women, Community, and Social Development, Dr. Mema Motusaga, the C.E.O. of Samoa Umbrella for Non-Governmental Organisations (SUNGO), Fuimaono Ofoia Vaitolo and the Samoa–Australia Tautua Human Development program. 

This provides information and knowledge-sharing opportunity on issues that require attention and support for the objective of CSOs engaging in formal and informal legal and policy systems for violence against women and girls prevention. As the Samoa Spotlight Initiative nears the end, the CSO-NRG are looking for ways to continue its spotlight work. They made it clear that even if they do not receive any funding their work will continue.