Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, May 10, 2018 (ECA) – A side event to help African ministers, lawmakers and others to deepen their understanding of the measures required to tackle illicit financial flows from Africa and priority policies, including laws relating to the effective management of the continent’s natural resources for the benefit of its people, will be held on the sidelines of the 2018 Conference of Ministers in Addis Ababa.

The meeting, which will be held on Sunday 13 May, 2018, at the United Nations Conference Centre starting from 4pm, will highlight critical tax policy and Africa’s revenue mobilization concerns and also discuss key messages from a study on the global governance architecture for tackling illicit financial flows and an Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) study on base erosion and profit shifting from an African perspective.

Gamal Ibrahim, Chief of the Finance and Private Sector Section in the Macroeconomic Policy Division at the ECA, says the event will also provide an opportunity for representatives of ECA, the African Tax Administration Forum and the Government of Norway, a partner in the meeting, to discuss what they see as priorities for tackling illicit financial flows in Africa.

The side event will be held under the topic; ‘Priorities for tackling illicit financial flows in Africa’, and is jointly organized by the ECA, the African Tax Administration Forum and the Government of Norway.

Africa loses over 50 billion dollars each year due to illicit financial flows.

African countries have committed themselves to tackling these flows through target 16.4 of the Sustainable Development Goals and the 2015 Special Declaration of the Assembly of the African Union on Illicit Financial Flows.

The side event will focus on identifying obstacles such as lack of transparency, weak legal and regulatory frameworks and a lack of institutional responsiveness and coordinated action to efforts made by Governments to mitigate the impact of illicit financial flows on domestic resource mobilization.