Browsing: UNCTAD

money

For the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to be actualized appropriate financing is required and remains a major challenge, added to concerns over insufficient financial accountability, transparency and integrity.  The President of the UN General Assembly and the President of the UN Economic and Social Council instituted a 15-member panel on Financial Accountability, Transparency and Integrity (FACTI) in March 2019, to look at ways to address illicit financial flows (IFFs), among other issues. Earlier, the problem of IFFs was brought to light by the Thabo Mbeki-led High-level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa in a 2015 report. Tackling the issue further the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) released the Economic Development in Africa Report 2020 titled, Tackling Financial Flows for Sustainable Development in Africa. All these efforts serve to highlight the urgency with which world leaders need to deal with this issue.  …

Paddy Report Insight November Article Image2 Source Mail and Guardian

It is with no doubt that the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has caused serious troubles for economies around the world, namely in the developed world. However, addressing the matter in much of the developing world is quite different, as many governments have seen national economic outputs derailed by a few years. The situation is much worse, as its knocked off many African countries from their respective economic trajectories.  

The health pandemic brought it’s friends along, as we've now witnessed an economic pandemic of sorts. Food crisis, housing crisis and political crisis have been all party to Covid-19, a theme that was explicit in the 2020 Bill and Melinda Gates Goal Keepers report published just last month (September 2020).  

The report raised interesting issues to examine attentively. It argued that in just 25 weeks almost 25 years of progress was regressed, particularly on the Sustainable Development Goals and in particular

Africa could gain $89bn annually by curbing illicit financial flows

illicit capital flows

Curbing illicit capital flows could almost cut in half the annual financing gap of $200 billion that the continent faces to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals according to UNCTAD’s Economic Development in Africa Report 2020.

The report titled  “Tackling illicit financial flows for sustainable development in Africa,” notes that every single year an estimated $88.6 billion, equivalent to 3.7 per cent of Africa’s GDP, leaves the continent as illicit capital flight.

According to the report, Illicit financial flows (IFFs) are movements of money and assets across borders which are illegal in source, transfer or use. The outflows include illicit capital flight, tax and commercial practices like mis-invoicing of trade shipments and criminal activities such as illegal markets, corruption or theft.

As per the average for 2013 to 2015, the outflows are nearly as much as the combined total annual inflows of official development assistance, valued at $48 …