PTLAC and South Centre

The report of the African Union/United Nations Economic Commission for Africa High Level Panel (HLP) on Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) out of Africa, chaired by former South African President Thabo Mbeki, was adopted in 2015 by the African Union Assembly. The report develops a novel methodology based on commercial underpricing to estimate IFFs in Africa and finds that between 2001 and 2010, $409 billion left Africa as IFFs. Since then, IFFs has been at the center of Africa's regional and international agenda, leading, among other things, to the Addis Ababa Action Agenda of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development and the inclusion of Target 16.4 to reduce IFFs in the Sustainable Development Goals.