The European Union has invested almost €500 million in the Spotlight initiative, a strategic partnership between the EU and the United Nations aimed at eliminating all forms of violence against women and girls around the world, but the results are not forthcoming and the EU is still the only donor, criticises the European Court of Auditors (ECA) in a very severe report published on Monday 11 September.
The Spotlight initiative, launched in 2017 for four years (see EUROPE 11867/20), has already been extended due to delays, notably caused by the Covid-19 crisis. It is one of the EU’s flagship programmes, and the auditors wanted to measure its effectiveness by focusing on partner countries in Africa and Latin America, which receive the majority of the budget covering 26 countries.
The auditors noted some uneven and insufficient progress, inefficient management with no guarantee of the sustainability of projects, use of funds that could be optimised, since one third of EU funding was used to cover UN management costs, and a lack of visibility of EU funding.
While progress has been made in terms of awareness-raising campaigns on violence against women and girls, none of the programmes supported has seen a reduction in the number of feminicides in Latin America, for example.
One third of the funding for UN management costs. The cost of managing the initiative by the United Nations was $155 million (31% of the total initiative budget), which leaves $351 million for partners in charge of implementation and beneficiaries.
The Commission knew that UN involvement would lead to higher costs, but did not carry out a thorough comparison of other options, the auditors noted, stressing that the Commission had taken a political decision to favour multilateralism.
In addition, the Spotlight initiative, financed by a multi-partner trust fund, was supposed to serve as a springboard for the involvement of other donors, both at global and national level; the EU is still the only donor to date, even though 300 million euros have yet to be provided, the auditors observed.
Not to mention the fact that the duration of the programme is not sufficient to bring about lasting change in a complex issue, according to the ECA.
According to Bettina Jakobsen, member of the ECA and responsible for the report, “violence against women and girls of course has no place in the world, and no woman or girl should be left behind. Nevertheless, it remains one of the most systematic and widespread human rights violation”.
Her colleagues explained to the press that UN management costs include the salaries of UN staff, who coordinate and manage the programme at global level.
Among the possible causes of the lack of interest from other donors, they cited “the lack of results and visibility” and the amount of €100 million required to join the steering board managing the initiative at global level, or €10 million for national and regional levels.
“Spotlight was a very ambitious attempt by the Commission to tackle a very important problem, but its impact has been very limited. Violence against women and girls has not decreased”, they added.
Recommendations. The Court of Auditors recommends that the European Commission carry out an in-depth comparison of the different implementation options in the various countries and regions before funding any action, justifying the reasons for selecting the countries and allocating the funds.
The ECA also recommends increasing funding for final beneficiaries in partner countries and limiting the number of UN agencies involved in the programme.
The Commission is invited as well to strengthen the sustainability of projects and the sharing of knowledge.
These recommendations were accepted.
To consult the report: https://aeur.eu/f/8i1 (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)