THEThe project won his competition Ethical Finance Foundation with the aim of providing new tools to combat gender-based violence. 33% of women who turn to anti-violence centers are victims of this abuse
Associations fighting for the protection of women’s rights and against gender-based violence have been asking for this for a long time: la economic violence it must be formally recognized (and treated as) abuse and must be combated by appropriate means to avoid the devastating effects it can have on the lives of victims. And where institutions fall short, private initiatives aimed precisely at providing support to all victims to break the cycle can. financial control and dependenceto enable them to achieve financial independence, maintain a job and access the financial resources necessary for security and well-being.
Precisely to combat gender-based violence in its entirety,”Currency,” a platform of political and financial activism tools designed to help financially vulnerable women have concrete tools for empowerment and financial education.
What is economic violence?
The World Health Organization estimates that one in three women worldwide is a victim of physical or psychological abuse by someone close to them. Financial violence is a form of domestic violence that involves financial control anduse of money as a means of power and coercion within the relationship, manifested through actions that limit or hinder a person’s financial autonomy and financial independence. It is a phenomenon that is still little researched, but whichSee 33% of women addressed to anti-violence centers.
Some examples behaviors related to financial violence include controlling money, limiting access to financial means, misappropriating the victim’s property or money, accumulating debt in his name, and financial coercion, such as threats and beatings to force the victim to take loans, sell assets or sign documents against their will.
What is Monetine and how does it work?
Coins is an initiative created by Global Impact Networka design workshop for innovation and development in Prato, thanks to a call for proposals from Ethical Finance Foundation, which funded projects to combat economic violence with 50 thousand euros within the donation program of Etica Sgr, an asset management company of the Banca Etica Group. The project was developed in collaboration with the La Nara anti-violence center;moderated by Francesca Ranaldi, Ami Fall, banker for over twenty years and author of the @pecuniami project, an Instagram page dedicated to disclosure and financial education aimed especially at women and by Azura Rinaldiprofessor of Political Economy at the Unitelma Sapienza University of Rome, where she is director of the School Of Gender Economics, expert in gender economics, author of articles and books on the issues of the gender gap.
Monetine, as mentioned, is a platform that aims to help victims of gender-based economic violence recognize, combat and overcome it, and has been online ever since spring 2023. The aim of the project is to provide women with the tools to recognize and thereby report gender-based economic violence and the cultural roots of this type of abuse, so that they dealing with the issue in a systemic way, taking into account all the spheres in which the phenomenon manifests itself: personal, social, cultural. For this reason, the involvement of banking institutions, one of the components of the winning project, was considered one of the elements of greatest interest by the Foundation for its selection.
The main recipients of the path of “Coins” against economic violence are therefore women who sought support from an anti-violence centre, but also the operators of the centers who will be provided with tools and methodologies to improve the service offered. The platform helps victims of domestic and financial violence understand how to go to a bank and start taking care of themselves, how to manage money and start building their financial independence, and how to plan for the future and recover control of their lives. In credit institutions, however, an awareness campaign was created for people working at the counter and credit workers to prepare for a different approach to potential or actual victims of financial violence.
The diffusion of the platform involved in the first degree 18 anti-violence centers in Tuscany, and will be extended to at least one anti-violence center for each Italian region: “Monetine provides tools to learn to recognize economic violence – explained Ami Fall – The first recipients are women housed in anti-violence centers, who they must recover or build from scratch the relationship with money and financial institutions. But we think it’s essential that those in charge of anti-violence centers also have the tools to support female victims of violence in accessing the bank.”
“We enthusiastically welcomed Monetine’s proposal to build a dialogue and debate with those working in the bank, in order to reach, if possible, a co-design of not only cultural but also technical-operational tools to address economic gender-based violence from within credit institutions – added Teresa Masciopinto, president of Fondazione Finanza Etica (Ethical Bank Group) – We decided to support the Glocal Impact Network project, which won the competition “My money, my choice”, thanks to Etica’s profit fund Sgr , from over 30 proposals that were presented, because we thought they were of great interest the comprehensive vision of the problem and how to approach it from different angles.”