International collaboration calls for greater focus on economic abuse

26th November 2022 marks International Economic Abuse Awareness Day (IEAAD). International Economic Abuse Awareness Day began in Canada in 2019 when the Canadian Centre for Women’s Empowerment CCFWE) called for greater recognition of the issue. Alongside Australia (Centre from Women’s Economic Safety – CWES) and New Zealand (Good Shepherd), SEA joined the campaign to raise awareness, learn from each other and explore how we can transform responses to economic abuse across the world.

The coalition is now made up of six organisations – SEA, CCFWE, CWES, Good Shepherd New Zealand, Institute for Social Development and Justice (South Africa) and Women’s Spirit (Israel).

This year, to mark IEAAD, we have released a new report which examines developments across our six countries since the beginning of 2021, in hopes of bringing more recognition and supporting responses, laws and strategies for changemakers and leaders to implement in their own environments.

‘Making a Difference: International responses to economic abuse’ underlines how economic abuse is still under-recognised as its own form of domestic abuse; ultimately impacting and preventing victim-survivors from leaving an abuser and having the tools they need to start afresh.

According to one study cited in SEA’s recently released research project, 1.4 billion women live in countries which do not recognise economic abuse. It has never been more important for countries and their leaders to embed an understanding of economic abuse into strategies, laws and initiatives that respond to domestic abuse.

Download ‘Making a Difference: International responses to economic abuse’ here.