A two-day meeting in Zagreb on January 12, 2012 marked the beginning of the implementation of a large regional project involving the Bulgarian Foundation for Gender Research, Rights for All from Sarajevo, Safe House Podgorica from Montenegro, and the European Movement in Serbia. The project Naming, Blaming and Framing Economic Violence against Women in Intimate Relationships was approved in Brussels as part of the European Commission's call for Partnership Actions - Women's Empowerment. The project's initiators, BaBe!, and the positive evaluation and approval of funds are a great success, as all major European networks and organizations competed with their proposals. Only 11 project proposals were approved.
The aim of the project is to investigate the extent and incidence of economic violence at one level, while at the same time building a network of organisations in partnership to establish long-term cooperation. Qualitative research (focus groups and in-depth interviews with one hundred women) will be conducted in all five participating countries, and in Croatia, quantitative research will be carried out on a representative sample of women in intimate relationships.
After the identification of the extent and mode of economic violence, it will be necessary to determine the possibilities of sanctions, as well as assistance to the victims who suffer this type of violence. At the same time, it will be investigated which forms of violence women experience in intimate relationships and in which combinations certain forms appear together.
In February, the European Commission is organizing the first meeting of organizations that have received funding for project implementation in order to establish communication and possible cooperation among them.
The project is challenging and extremely interesting. In a week, after shaping the questionnaires for focus groups and in-depth interviews, the field research will begin.
The next meeting will take place in April in Sarajevo.
