(PHOTO CREDITS: Financial Transparency Coalition)
The changing face of illicit financial flows (IFFs) necessitates multifaceted approaches to detect, remedy and or mitigate risks associated with the phenomenon. It is therefore paramount that civil society actors in developing countries are able to create and contribute to policy debates for the realization of financial and tax transparency and accountability. To achieve this, such actors need to actively engage and provide developing country perspectives informing the ongoing international debate on financial transparency issues, as well as contextualize global debates at national levels, thus promoting the development of national and regional rights-based narratives and movements on illicit financial flows and financial transparency in the Global South.
From the foregoing, the Financial Transparency Coalition’s (FTC) Southern Regions Program (SRP) aims at providing a platform civil society to shape the global discourse on illicit financial flows and financial secrecy. The SRP through research and advocacy activities seeks to inform norms and standards on illicit financial flows according to the differentiated realities of developing countries.
The FTC recognises the dearth of literature emerging from the Global South to effectively address issues of financial secrecy, enablers of illicit financial flows, the lopsided impact on domestic resources mobilisation due to the loss of revenue as illicit financial flows, adoption of tax transparency standards in developing countries and the much needed reforms in the international financial architecture.
