In 2018, UNECA and UNCTAD, with the cooperation of UNODC, inaugurated a new Development Account project called “Defining, estimating and disseminating statistics on illicit financial flows in Africa”.

The project aimed at consolidating existing and testing new methodological guidelines for the measurement of Indicator 16.4.1 “Total value of inward and outward illicit financial flows (IFFs)”, as well as to build and strengthen statistical capacity by providing technical assistance and guidance to pilot countries for the measurement of such indicator.

As a result, an UNCTAD/UNODC Conceptual Framework for the Statistical Measurement of Illicit Financial Flows was published in October 2020, and in June 2021, UNCTAD published Methodological Guidelines to Measure Tax and Commercial IFFs for pilot testing.

Large-scale pilot testing has been ongoing in 2021-2022 of the UNCTAD Guidelines in eleven African countries: Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Ghana, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Zambia.

A hybrid Closing Conference of the project is being organized to discuss the implementation of activities related to the measurement of tax and commercial IFFs in the eleven African countries. Each national representative will present the process; results; lessons learned and next steps of their countries’ involvement in the measurement of IFFs. Discussions will also focus on common grounds and initiatives of other stakeholders in curbing IFFs in Africa, and on the next steps for policy actions.