UNCTAD and UNODC are custodian agencies of indicator 16.4.1 on illicit financial flows (IFFs) and their respective statistical sections jointly developed a Conceptual Framework for the Statistical Measurement of Illicit Financial Flows in 2020.¹ The Framework was endorsed by the UN Statistical Commission in March 2022.

In parallel, custodian agencies have drafted methodologies to measure various types of IFFs. To date, methodologies to measure IFFs have been tested by 22 countries on three continents in efforts coordinated by UN regional commissions and UNODC field Offices (on crime-related IFFs), alongside UNCTAD and UNODC statistics. This includes 12 African countries, 4 Latin American and 6 Asian countries many of which produced first estimates of commercial or crime-related IFFs. As lessons are learned and estimation methods are tested and refined, interest from countries to systematically and regularly measure IFFs is growing.

During the first quarter of the year 2023, for SDG reporting, UNODC has provided the first ever data on crime-related IFFs for SDG indicator 16.4.1². Following up with these efforts, the UN Development Account project Measuring and Curbing Illicit Financial Flows³ aims to strengthen the capacity of developing countries across regions to produce standardized estimates of illicit financial flows and enhance investigative and analytical capacities to develop evidence -based policy responses to monitor and curb illicit financial flows.

This workshop is organised with three specific objectives:

1. To kick-off the UN Development Account project Measuring and Curbing Illicit Financial Flows globally and bring partners and participating countries to the similar level of understanding of the project and strengthen stakeholder engagement and coordination.
2. To enhance the capacity of countries on understanding the methodologies developed by custodian agencies and regional commissions to measure SDG indicator 16.4.1 on IFFs, and support countries in formulating relevant policy responses and providing examples from different regions.
3. Provide participating countries opportunities to share their experiences and learn.

Targeted participants of the international kick-off meeting are national and international stakeholders within the UN Development Account project Measuring and Curbing Illicit Financial Flows.

¹ https://unctad.org/publication/conceptual-framework-statistical-measurement-illicit-financial-flows

² Selecting data series to reflect SDG indicator 16.4.1 on SDG Indicators Database: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/dataportal/database returns Indicator 16.4.1 series: Total value of inward illicit financial flows (DI_ILL_IN) and Total value of outward illicit financial flows (DI_ILL_OUT).

³ https://unctad.org/external/project/measuring-and-curbing-illicit-financial-flows