Financial Transparency Coalition

There’s a bustle of traffic, horns are honking and cranes erecting new buildings dot Nairobi’s growing skyline. On the surface, the Kenyan capital seems to embody the narrative of “Africa Rising”. But on the ground, here and elsewhere around the continent, there is a growing phenomenon that is setting back growth and economic development: illicit

On June 25, 2015, the Interim Working Group of the African IFF Campaign Platform will launch the “Stop the Bleeding” campaign in Nairobi, Kenya. The goal of the campaign is to curb the Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) from Africa that perpetuate poverty and hinder development across the continent.

African leaders made a strong declaration on the importance of curbing illicit financial flows when they endorsed a new report on the problem at the African Union Summit in January. The report, produced by the Mbeki High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa, estimated that Africa was losing between $50 billion and $150

As the G20 finance ministers assemble in Istanbul this weekend, there’s a good chance at least one of them will repeat the phrase ‘the era of bank secrecy is over’, heard several times since the 2009 G20 Summit. But before anyone thinks of repeating it again, they should instead look at the plans (or lack thereof) for including developing countries. As our new report, Information for the Nations, explains, while new reforms on financial transparency are welcome, the proposals could end up leaving a number of developing countries behind. At...