As part of the project on Defining, estimating and disseminating statistics on illicit financial flows in Africa, UNCTAD finalized a draft of “Methodological Guidelines to Measure Tax and Commercial IFFs” in May 2021, for pilot testing, aimed at statistical and other national authorities with a mandate to collect and access relevant information. After a call for expression of interest in Africa in February 2021, jointly launched between UNECA and UNCTAD, the following countries participate in pilot testing of the measurement of IFFs: Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Ghana, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Zambia.

UNODC, UNCTAD, together with ESCAP, inaugurated a Development Account project called Statistics and data for measuring illicit financial flows in the Asia-Pacific region in 2020. The Partner Agencies selected six countries of Asia as pilot testing countries, two of which, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, are focusing on IFFs from illicit tax-related and commercial practices.

Challenges and opportunities encountered in the pilots in Africa and in Asia will help refine the Methodological Guidelines and contribute to the reporting of progress towards SDG target 16.4 in the future.

In order to support countries’ pilot calculation of IFFs estimates, UNECA, UNCTAD and ESCAP are organizing an interregional training workshop on the statistical measurement of tax and commercial IFFs. The purpose of the workshop is to provide an in-depth training on the 6 selected statistical methodologies proposed in the Methodological Guidelines to members of Technical Working Groups (TWGs) from pilot countries, share case studies /experiences as well as discuss challenges experienced in the data review and/or use of identified methods.

To watch the videos of the interregional training, kindly click here.