African Union

Focusing on limiting IFF is a much better option for providing African countries with the necessary funds towards achieving Agenda 2063 and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Realizing tax revenue from reducing IFFs may also reduce dependence on foreign aid. As African countries take the required steps to curb IFF, it is relevant to note that no single country can independently curb Illicit financial flows, especially from aggressive tax planning. Increasing financial transparency through consistent domestic policy implementation and international cooperation remains one of the most efficient channels to halt IFFs out of Africa.

Africa is unquestionably confronted with substantial development financing needs, which are further exacerbated by two independent, yet interrelated problems that are depleting the already scarce resources: illicit financial flows (IFFs) and a growing burden of unsustainable debt. To effectively tackle the complex challenges of Africa’s development; including achieving the SDGs, combating the effects of climate change, and resolving human rights issues; it is imperative to address IFF by promoting tax justice and to confront unsustainable debt through debt justice. Given the importance of establishing this link, this blog post delves into the challenges and nexus between IFF and unsustainable debt and provides high level policy recommendations.

In the last decade, there have been seven major leaks of financial documents in tax havens which have exposed the international web of financial flows, mechanisms to facilitate these flows and the major role players in these activities. In each leak, questions often arise on how both legal loopholes and illicit means are used to facilitate the outflow of funds from low- and middle-income countries to tax havens by corporations, wealthy individuals, and politically exposed persons (PEPs). These leaks are often the result of whistleblower-led investigations and the release of these financial documents has become a primary resource in understanding how financial corruption works globally. The effects of these leaks have seen heads of government sacked or resigned in some cases while little to no action takes place in other countries. However, what is undeniable is the role of whistleblowers is increasingly becoming central to curbing illicit financial flows (IFFs) especially as the global digital economy and stronger privacy-enhancing technologies make the detection of IFFs harder. Within Africa, very few countries have comprehensive national laws for whistleblowers despite the majority ratifying international agreements for the protection of whistleblowers. Using Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa as case studies, this note reviews the regulatory landscape in the countries and the extent to which current laws and practices aid or hinder whistleblowing on IFFs.

Contributors to the symposium offer unique perspectives and draw on different theoretical and methodological approaches to the practice and scholarship related to IFFs in African states and beyond. Several themes were addressed by the contributors, including tax justice, technology, corruption, accountability, political will, repatriation, recovery of Assets, migration, whistleblowing, international investment, and real estate.

The African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation (APTF) was established in 2023 to improve Africa’s local pharmaceutical capacity and access to technologies needed to discover and manufacture medicines. This new initiative was prompted by the vaccine inequities experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this article, I highlight four critical concerns regarding the structural and operational framework of the APTF, which have the potential to undermine the Foundation's objectives and legitimacy: the misallocation of public resources due to the existence of a similar agency established by the African Union (AU), the Foundation's endorsement of BioNTech's opaque "black box" system, which conflicts with its objectives, the continental approach that overlooks the diversity of the African continent, and the lack of a clear public accountability structure in its governance framework. Consequently, I offer preliminary suggestions on how these concerns might be addressed.

This long-awaited book provides a fresh view of how international law is forged, implemented and practiced in Africa, offering a global vision of the position that the African continent presently occupies in the international legal order. In addition to some contributions by European authors, the book mostly gathers young African scholars (including the editor, one of the most promising African international lawyers of our times) who consider different aspects of international law.

Afronomicslaw and The South Centre are delighted to collaborate on this webinar where our Panelists will reflect on some of the most topical issues under the broad umbrella of geopolitics of reforms, Africa and the WTO. Please join us as we reflect on the MC13, reform of the WTO DSM and implications for Africa, Africa in an era of renewed industrial policy, sustainable trade in Africa among others.

Having attended two-thirds of the WTO’s ministerial conferences, I have been reflecting on why they have failed. In most cases it comes down to an abuse of process and bullying by more powerful Members, sometimes with collusion from the chair and the secretariat, leaving developing countries with two choices: capitulation or denial of consensus.

The African Sovereign Debt Justice Network, (AfSDJN), is a coalition of citizens, scholars, civil society actors and church groups committed to exposing the adverse impact of unsustainable levels of African sovereign debt on the lives of ordinary citizens. Convened by Afronomicslaw.org with the support of Open Society for Southern Africa, (OSISA), the AfSDJN's activities are tailored around addressing the threats that sovereign debt poses for economic development, social cohesion and human rights in Africa. It advocates for debt cancellation, rescheduling and restructuring as well as increasing the accountability and responsibility of lenders and African governments about how sovereign debt is procured, spent and repaid.