National validation Workshop of pilot activities for measuring Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) in Egypt

The United Nations integrated SDGs Financing project for Egypt (INFF) aims to develop capacities and put in place simple systems to continuously measure, map and compare financing flows. An important element of this project is identifying financing opportunities, through the better availability and quality of data, in particular data on Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs). IFFs threaten countries’ ability to achieve the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by diverting resources from development.

Custodian agencies of SDG indicator 16.4.1, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC), released Conceptual Framework for the Statistical Measurement of Illicit Financial Flows in October 2020. In May 2021, UNCTAD finalised a draft of Methodological Guidelines to Measure Tax and Commercial IFFs for pilot testing, aimed at statistical and other national authorities with a mandate to collect and access relevant information. UNODC are finalising the Guidelines to measure IFFs from extractive activities and illegal drugs markets.

This Validation workshop is organised with two specific objectives:

1. To review, provide feedback and inputs into refinement of the report on IFF risk assessment in Egypt to complete the background information on IFFs in Egypt, in turn setting the national context for further pilot-testing plan to measure IFFs in Egypt.
2. To serve as a platform to discuss forming a national technical working group, i.e., expert group for statistical measurement of IFFs in Egypt. During the workshop, participants will be presented with the mandate, workplan and membership of the proposed expert group.

Targeted participants of the validation workshop are the same participants as in the previous kick-off workshop. Additionally, statisticians and other experts at the technical level are strongly encouraged to actively participate in this workshop, including, but not limited to, persons responsible for filling-in the SAQs and experts directly involved in IFF-related activities at various national institutions, either data, statistical, or other expertise inputs.