July 13, 2015
Christine Clough, PMP
Initiative Funded by the Government of Norway
WASHINGTON, DC – Global Financial Integrity (GFI) is pleased to announce the launch of a new program that seeks to assist developing country governments with increasing domestic resource capture by curtailing trade misinvoicing, and continuing work to educate policy makers about the corrosive impact illicit financial flows have on developing economies.
Funded by a year-long US$1.7 million grant from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, GFI will focus its advocacy efforts on key stakeholders in order to embed the illicit flows issue in the International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD) Outcome Document and in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) targets and indicators. Further, GFI will work directly with select developing country governments to substantially curtail trade misinvoicing (i.e. trade fraud) — the primary method used to move illicit funds out of developing countries — in order to increase the collection of related tax revenue (i.e. domestic resource mobilization), which can then be used for development projects. GFI estimates that in 2012 alone the global volume of trade misinvoicing was $730 billion.
“Norway continues to be a global leader on promoting financial transparency for development, and we are grateful for their support and recognition of our efforts to address the phenomenon of illicit financial flows, which undermines so many economies around the globe,” said GFI President Raymond Baker. GFI estimates that close to $1 trillion in illicit funds are siphoned out of developing economies each year. Further, a recent GFI report showed that twenty of the world’s poorest nations have IFF levels that are higher than development aid and foreign direct investment combined.
The third FfD Conference will be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from July 13 – 16; the SDGs will be finalized during the UN General Assembly meeting in New York this September. GFI Managing Director Tom Cardamone will be in Addis to push for a target of curtailing illicit financial flows by 2030.
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Contact:
Tom Cardamone
tcardamone@gfintegrity.org
+1 571 277 7310 (Mobile)
Christine Clough
cclough@gfintegrity.org
+1 202 510 1548 (Mobile)