African CSOs call on governments to engage more closely in the FACTI Panel High-Level Africa regional consultation

Wednesday, November 18, 2020
PAC 2020 press release

African CSOs call on governments to engage more closely in the FACTI Panel High-Level Africa regional consultation

Nairobi, 18th November 2020 –  We the undersigned civil society organizations, meeting at the 8th Pan African Conference on Illicit Financial Flows and Taxation take note of the on-going work of the the High-Level Panel on International Financial Accountability, Transparency and Integrity for Achieving the 2030 Agenda (FACTI Panel), established by the UN, and it’s relevance to issues regarding illicit financial flows.  African governments made a commitment to prioritize ending IFFS from Africa in the 2015 AU Special Declaration on Illicit Financial Flows From Africa, and in this regard should engage closely with FACTI process. We therefore call on African governments to participate in the FACTI Panel High-Level Africa regional consultation on Wednesday 18 November, 2020 at the ministerial level, in particular the Finance, Justice and Foreign ministries and related agencies.

The FACTI Panel represents a critical institutional space to call for the implementation of measures targeted at curbing illicit financial flows and widespread tax evasion and tax avoidance that are most harmful to countries in the Global South. We, therefore, urge African governments to participate in the FACTI Panel High Level Africa Regional Consultation and use this opportunity to critique the shortfalls of the OECD processes and demand the establishment of a truly inclusive and democratic global tax governance structure.

Reforming the global structure of the international financial architecture and strengthening the fiscal and policy space for socio-economic transformation were key recommendations of the PAC conference. Civil society organizations meeting at this conference, therefore, call on African governments to demand that the FACTI Panel explicitly recognizes the immediate need for a universal, intergovernmental tax body at the United Nations, where developing countries can defend and safeguard their individual national interests through a collective action at the United Nations.

On 18th November, the High-Level FACTI Panel and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa will be hosting the High-level Africa regional consultation to discuss possible means to address the shortcomings identified in the interim report published by the FACTI Panel on 24 September 2020.

It is only by active participation that African leaders can ensure the FACTI Panel’s final report addresses the needs of African countries as losers in a rigged international finance architecture. “As a citizen of this continent, I am saddened by the fact that African Ministers of Finance are taking the FACTI Panel consultations casually. This is the moment to right an international tax system that has all along been rigged against us. We cannot afford to lose this moment,” said Alvin Mosioma, Executive Director, Tax Justice Network Africa.

The fundamental lesson that Covid-19 has taught us is the centrality of public resources to Africa’s development. As a continent, strengthening domestic resource mobilisation depends on ending IFFs. “We must all work towards ensuring that the FACTI Panel’s final report builds better on the Mbeki led High Level Panel Report on Illicit Financial Flows by clearly framing the analysis around IFFs”.  added Mr. Mosioma.

To ensure we build back better and sustainably post-Covid-19, our governments must ensure that a truly inclusive architecture of international tax cooperation is built to end IFFs that deny our governments billions of dollars that would otherwise be invested in public services, particularly health, education and social protection. Our leaders cannot afford to go back to the easy path of debt.

Notes to Editors:

African civil societies hosted the 8th Pan African Conference (PAC) on Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) and Taxation from 9-13 November 2020. The theme of the conference was ‘The Africa We Want Post COVID-19: Optimizing Domestic Resource Mobilization from the Extractive Sector for Africa’s Transformation.’ The meeting focused on the critical need for African countries to maximize domestic resource mobilization through addressing widespread tax abuses of transnational corporations engaged in extractive activities and the curbing of illicit financial flows in light of the devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in order to build back better for the people and the planet.

The meeting focused on the critical need for African countries to maximize domestic resource mobilization through addressing widespread tax abuses of transnational corporations engaged in extractive activities and the curbing of illicit financial flows in light of the devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in order to build back better for the People and the Planet. Click here to read more about PAC.

The FACTI Panel regional consultations seeks to bring together high-level representatives from member states, along with leaders from the private sector, civil society and academia whose inputs will feed into the FACTI Panel’s determination of technically feasible and politically viable recommendations to be made in its final report in February 2021. To read more about the FACTI Panel, visit their website here.

Signed by the convenors of the 8th Pan African Conference (PAC) on Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) and Taxation.

The meeting was organised by Trust Africa in collaboration with 18 co-conveners, namely: Tax Justice Network Africa (TJNA), African Union (AU), United Nations Economic Commission on Africa (UNECA), Global Alliance for Tax Justice (GATJ), African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF), OXFAM, Action Aid, Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC), Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), African Minerals Development Center (AMDC), Publish What You Pay (PWYP), StopTheBleeding (STB) Consortium, Pan African Lawyers’ Union (PALU), Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (ZIMCODD) and Centre Régional Africain pour le Développement Endogène et Communautaire (CRADEC), Youth for Tax Justice Network (YTJN), African Forum and Network on Debt and Development (AFRODAD) and the East African Tax and Governance Network (EATGN).

Contact information: 

Chenai Mukumba, Policy Research and Advocacy Manager, Tax Justice Network Africa, cmukumba@taxjusticeafrica.net

Joab Okanda, Financing for Development and Inequality Advisor, Oxfam, joab.okanda@oxfam.org

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