Illicit financial flows: report of the High Level Panel on illicit financial flows from Africa

Abstract

The 4th Joint African Union Commission/United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (AUC/ECA) Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development was held in 2011. This Conference mandated ECA to establish the High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa. Underlying this decision was the determination to ensure Africa’s accelerated and sustained development, relying as much as possible on its own resources. This Report reflects the work that the High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows has carried out since it was established in February 2012, particularly to: Develop a realistic and accurate assessment of the volumes and sources of these outflows; Gain concrete understanding of how these outflows occur in Africa, based on case studies of a sample of African countries and; Ensure that we make specific recommendations of practical, realistic, short- to medium-term actions that should be taken both by Africa and by the rest of the world to effectively confront what is in fact a global challenge.