The Global Challenges of Illicit Financial Flows

Illicit financial flows (IFFs) have become a serious threat to the attainment of global development goals. On February 28th, 2020, the President of the United Nations General Assembly, Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, and the President of ECOSOC, Mona Juul, have announced a high-level panel on international financial accountability, transparency, and integrity (FACTI) as a means to address this challenge, which inhibits financing for the Sustainable Development Goals. This paper provides an in-depth analysis of the challenge of IFFs by looking at their magnitude in different world regions, namely: Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America and the Caribbean. It further probes the source and destination of most IFFs by looking at developing and developed countries. It discussed the international architecture to curb IFFs and points out gaps. It concludes by calling for global cooperation and collective action between states and other national and international stakeholders in order to combat IFFs and bridge the current gaps.