8/9/2019 African CSO Recommendations to AU Heads of State Summit
in Addis Ababa on HLP on IFFs Report- January 2015 -
1/5
January 19th2015
The Chairperson24thAU Heads of States SummitAddis
AbabaEthiopia
Your Excellency,
RE: JOINT AFRICAN CIVIL SOCIETY STATEMENT ON ILLICIT FINANCIAL
FLOWSTO THE AFRICAN UNION HEADS OF STATES AND GOVERNMENT
We write to you and the African Union Heads of State and
Government on behalf of theundersigned coalitions of African civil
society organisations and networks representedacross the African
continent.
Please deliver on our behalf the following message to our
leaders, the AU Heads of State.
We welcome and commend the African Union Heads of State and
Government for thecommitment shown over the last couple of years to
tackle Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) fromAfrica. This commitment
has been demonstrated by Resolution 896 (XLV) ) on IllicitFinancial
Flows adopted at the Fourth Joint Annual Meetings of the African
UnionConference of Ministers of Economy and Finance and the
Economic Commission for AfricaConference of Ministers of Finance,
Planning and Economic Development, providing foraction to be taken
to address the problem of such flows.
The presentation of the report of the High Level Panel on
Illicit Financial Flows from Africa atthis years January Summit by
H.E. Former President of South Africa and Chair of the Panel,Thabo
Mbeki, comes at a time when irrefutable evidence has emerged to
show that fordecades Africa has been robbed of its resources.
According to the Global Financial Integrity(GFI) and the African
Development Bank (AfDB), Africa is losing more than US$50
billionannually through Illicit Financial Outflows.
In this regard as African civil society:
We comm end the AU Heads o f State and the AU Ministers of
Finance for
ini t iat ing, sup port ing and faci l i tat ing the w ork of th
e High Level Panel on Il l ic i tFinancial Flows from Africa headed
by H.E. Mbeki. We welcom e and look
forward to the launch of the Panelsfinal repor t at the 24th
Heads o f StateSummit.
We comm end the role that the Uni ted Nat ions Econom ic Comm
iss ion for A fr ica(UNECA) has played in faci l i tat ing and
providing the necessary technical
backstop ping to the High Level Panel.
We commend the High Level Panel for i ts work inc luding consul
t ing wi thdif ferent stakeholders such as go vernments, civi l
society org anizat ions, the
private sector and regional and internat ional organizat ions in
the pro cess ofcoming up w i th i ts progress reports and the for
thcoming report .
8/9/2019 African CSO Recommendations to AU Heads of State Summit
in Addis Ababa on HLP on IFFs Report- January 2015 -
2/5
Coming in the same year that Africa will host the Third Global
Financing for DevelopmentSummit, in July in Addis Ababa, the
conclusion of the report by the High Level Panelprovides an
opportunity for African governments, civil society and citizens to
join hands indemanding and ensuring progressive reforms in the
post-2015 development financingarchitecture, on the basis of a
global framework that enables enhanced domestic
resourcemobilization, clamping down on corporate tax malpractice
and putting an end to illicitoutflows of resources from the
continent.
It is against this background that civil society in Africa have
come together to take a standagainst the continued plundering of
Africas resources and call upon our leaders to seriouslyconsider
the following recommendations as next steps aimed at ensuring that
the work of thePanel translates into meaningful results and
achievements towards tackling illicit financialflows on the
continent.
Recommendations
We call upon:
1. The AU Heads of State and Government to adopt the recomm
endations
contained in the High Level Panel report;
2. The AU Heads of State and Government to prov ide the
necessary leadership by
putt in g in place the adequate inst i tut ional and pol i t
ical mechanisms to ens ure
that Afr ican gov ernments have a clear vision and roadm ap for
the
implementat ion of key recommend ations aimed at tackl ing
IFFs.
3. The AU Heads of State and Government to suppo rt the wo rk
and strength en
African inst i tu t ions working on tackl ing I l l ic i t
Financial Flows at regional and
national levels such as the African Tax Adm inistrators Forum
(ATAF) and
Regional Econom ic Comm unit ies (RECs).
4. The AU Heads of State and Governm ent to extend the mandate
and ful ly
resource th e Mbeki-led High L evel Panel to serve either as a
standing
committee or an AU agency th at wi l l oversee and mo nitor the
implementat ion
of the recommendations of the Panels report. Further, sucha
structure mustensure and protect the role for civi l society and
cit izens in any mechanism fo r
the implementat ion of the HLPsreport recomm endations.
5. The AU Heads of State and Government at this summit to send a
clear and firmmessage to the internat ional comm unity and cal l
for cooperat ion in closing the
leaks, as finding a solut ion to these chal lenges requires
internat ionalcooperat ion and leadership to support Afr ica and
not undermine the
continentsefforts.
6. The AU Heads of State and Governm ent to proact ively develop
and adopt a
commo n African pos it ion and art iculate a vision for l inking
the HLP report on
IFF within th e broad Financing for Development (FfD) agenda.
This wo uld s erve
as a basis for Afr ic an countr iesengagement in th e FfD
process.
This statement and the recommendations herein have been endorsed
by the following civilsociety organizations and movements;
