Every year, Africa loses about $88.6 billion as illicit capital flight, equivalent to 3.7 per cent of the continent’s gross domestic product. From 2000 to 2015, the total illicit capital flight from Africa amounted to $836 billion. Plugging illicit capital flight could almost halve the annual financing gap of $200 billion that Africa needs to fund the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Silencing the guns in Africa is more necessary now than ever, as highlighted by the UN Secretary-General’s call for a global ceasefire in March 2020, in order to focus efforts on fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.

The High-level Meeting focused on the impact of Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) in exacerbating existing vulnerabilities in African countries, in addition to other sources of instability, and provided a platform to examine the role of IFFs in fuelling instability in Africa by depriving the continent’s countries of important resources that could be used to finance development programmes, improve livelihoods and promote opportunities for economic participation, including for women and youth.

The event was hosted by the United Nations Office of the Special Adviser on Africa (OSAA) and the Permanent Observer Mission of the African Union to the United Nations, in partnership with the Permanent Missions of South Africa and Nigeria to the United Nations. A cross-section of participants, including African Member States, UN entities, international and regional organizations, civil society and academic institutions participated in the event.

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