| Overview : BACKGROUND Violence against women and girls represents a global challenge for the achievement of the SDG in the world including in Haiti. This violence prevents women and girls from fulfilling their potential and constitutes a violation of human rights that cuts across boundaries of economic status, culture, religion, age and sexual orientation. In Haiti, Twenty-nine percent (29%) of women and girls aged 15-49 years have been physically abused since the age of 15. Among non-single women/girls, this violence was perpetrated in 45% of cases by the current husband / partner. One in eight women (12%) reported experiencing sexual violence at some point in their lives; in the last twelve months, this percentage is 5%. Women living in unions or having recently separated from their partner are almost two times more likely to experience physical or sexual violence than single women. While GBV disproportionally affects women and girls, it also affects men and boys. Domestic violence prevalence rate ranges from 23% to 42%.This underlines the fact that physical and sexual violence against women in Haiti takes place first in the domestic sphere, often behind closed doors, and where other family members including children may be present and affected. This violence is rooted in the system of patriarchal domination that perpetuate discriminatory gender stereotypes about women and encourage control of women and girls. Several factors are worsening the situation, including: i) the lack of specific legal framework; ii) the limited access to care and protection services; iii) the lack of women’s economic empowerment opportunities and their inability to break the cycle of violence; iv) national institutions and CSOs’ insufficient funding and capacities for the implementation of national policies and strategies aiming at ending violence against women and girls . In this context, Haiti has been selected to be part of EU-UN Spotlight Initiative Spotlight program. This program aims to support transformative change on the ground to end violence against women and girls, in several countries globally. This Initiative comes with the highest level of commitment globally and will be governed by the UN Deputy Secretary General and the Vice President of the EU Commission. The Initiative rests on six pillars developed after an extensive global theory of change exercise. The pillars are: 1) Laws and Policies; 2) Institutions; 3) Prevention and Social Norms; 4) Services; 5) Data; and 6) Women’s movement. The focus of the Haiti Spotlight Program is on family violence. The concept of family refers to people in the immediate environment, whether or not connected by blood, who support each other. Family violence covers physical, social, sexual, economic and emotional abuse and acts of aggression within relationships that are considered as family connections or akin to family connections. Family violence in the Caribbean region can be located within broader “cultures of violence” within the region which inform high levels of crime and violence as well as corporal punishment and the use of violent discipline posing a serious barrier to achieving sustainable development, economic growth and peace. A definition of family violence for the purpose of the Spotlight initiative in the Caribbean takes into account the reality of various family forms present in the Caribbean region and the broader context of unequal gender-power relations in which these various family forms are situated. Taking unequal gender-power relations into account, family violence will be viewed as gender-based with the most prevalent form of violence within the family being violence against women and girls. Notably, a definition of family violence in the Caribbean context incorporates a focus on economic violence as well as psychological/ emotional violence, partner and non-partner sexual violence, domestic violence, sexual violence, intimate partner violence as well as female intimate partner or family related homicide. Addressing the larger framework of family violence takes into account the family setting, the presence of children, and the associated risks of violence against the children within the home and the negative effects of intergenerational violence. The Haiti Spotlight team launched the preparation of its country joint program and will be working in close cooperation with the Government, women’s organizations and other civil society and non-governmental stakeholders. As part of the Haiti Spotlight Team, the Resident Coordinator Office (RCO) has been coordinating the process until the selection of the country as program country and will continue to play a leading strategic coordinating role in the program development phase. Toward this end, the RCO is seeking a fulltime expert in Violence Against Women/Girls to support the conceptualization, consultation processes and drafting of Haiti Country Program Document. | 
