By Maureen Heydt, March 16, 2020
The revelatory Luanda Leaks by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and 35 partner organizations exposed the critical role financial service providers – frequently Western – play in facilitating massive international financial scandals. Indeed, the ICIJ...
August 26, 2019
by Ben Iorio “The traditional thinking has always been that the West is pouring money into Africa through foreign aid and other private-sector flows, without receiving much in return. Actually, that logic is upside down – Africa...
April 24, 2018
This year, Global Financial Integrity and Academics Stand Against Poverty will be awarding the fifth annual Amartya Sen Prizes to the two best original essays on assessing the human impact of illicit financial flows out of Africa....
The Addis Tax Initiative (ATI) this month invited Global Financial Integrity (GFI) as the first Supporting Organization to be added since the initiative was launched in July 2015. GFI joins the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in this role.
Your Excellencies, Honorable Ministers, distinguished officials, members of the Bar, and guests.
I am delighted to have the opportunity to participate in PALU’s annual conference, this year focusing on the eradication of corruption and illicit financial flows and the role of lawyers and lawyers associations. These issues have moved into the forefront of Africa’s agenda in recent years and will continue to shape thinking about maximizing domestic resources for development in the coming years.
Globally the business of transnational crime is valued at an average of $1.6 trillion to $2.2 trillion annually, according to a new report released by Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington DC-based research and advisory organization. Titled “Transnational Crime and the Developing World,” the study highlights that the combination of high profits and low risks for perpetrators of transnational crime and the support of a global shadow financial system perpetuate and drive these abuses.
As national leaders meet at the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa this week, a group of civil society experts has issued a set of recommendations to address illicit financial flows (IFFs), an issue of critical importance to regional development. Titled Accelerating the IFF Agenda for African Countries (the Accelerated IFF Agenda), the purpose of the document is to highlight for African leaders fourteen steps that can be taken to jumpstart efforts to address IFFs. Among the recommendations are suggestions to establish a multi-agency approach to fight IFFs, to collect information to identify corporate ownership, and certain tax-related measures.
March 22, 2016
A recent Global Financial Integrity study concluded that measurable illicit financial outflows topped the $1 trillion mark in 2013. The inclusion of illicit financial flows (IFFs) in the Sustainable Development Goals was an affirmation of the detrimental impact these flows have on the development of low income countries. Amongst the most keenly affected are children, who lose out on quality education due to insufficient government funding. I was able to witness just this, when I spent the 2013 academic year at a village school just outside the city of Zomba, Malawi, a country that GFI estimates loses on average US$650 million per year in illicit outflows.