Financial Transparency Coalition

A new database of public revenues is now available from the African Economic Outlook, a joint project from the OECD, the African Development Bank (AfDB), the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the UN Development programme (UNDP.) It is here. It is astonishing that the data on African (and other developing countries') revenue sectors has been so poor, for so long - so it is extremely welcome to see this new source become available, which could become a valuable tool for researchers. The main finding from the data is that African...

Aid doesn’t work. It’s a statement I hear a lot. Development aid often gets siphoned off by corruption. Aid in the form of money is inefficient, often getting lost in red tape and bureaucratic mess, while those in need see nearly none of it. Aid in the form of goods encourages dependency. Almost in response, private sector capitalists have responded with microfinance. Indeed, the microfinance has seemed like an answer to this conundrum. It the free-market’s response to one of the most difficult questions in development economics: how can we help without undermining the very goal we...

Following the annual conference of the Task Force on Financial Integrity & Economic Development last week in Bergen, Norway, Global Financial Integrity Director Raymond Baker had the opportunity to give a lecture on the issue of illicit financial flows and the impact they have on development hosted by the U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre and the Chr. Michelsen Institute at the the Bergen Resource Centre for International Development. Check out the full lecture below:

HSBC Holdings PLC has entered an agreement with the U.S. government to resolve regulatory actions that stemmed from alleged violations of antimoney-laundering rules and other federal laws.