Illicit Financial Flows
Focus Area:
Since 2013, TrustAfrica has invested in building a concerted advocacy movement to stop Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) from Africa. African countries are suffering huge capital losses due to illicit financial flows. This essentially refers to the masked movement of money and other forms of wealth from one national jurisdiction to another, with the intent to deceive the relevant national authorities and to avoid paying compulsory dues. Often, this involves undeclared bulk movements of cash, clandestine transfers, smuggling and trade mis-invoicing of goods and services. The High-Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa (HLP) estimated that a minimum of $50 billion dollars is lost from the continent every year due to IFFs, with corruption as one of the drivers behind this loss.
Project Impact
Movement Building: #StopTheBleeding Campaign
We developed the Stop the Bleeding campaign to end illicit financial flows from Africa, in collaboration with key African civil society organizations—in particular, the Tax Justice Network-Africa.
Knowledge Generation and Sharing
We are investing in strengthening the repository of core data and research on IFFs, and enhancing the accessibility of relevant core resources, to ensure more evidence-based advocacy to curb IFFs.
High Level Pan African Advocacy to Implement HLP Recommendations
We have contributed to the establishment of a high level platform for joint strategizing and coordinating the work of leading African organizations and global allies towards the implementation of the recommendations of the high level panel on IFFs from Africa; namely, the IFF Consortium