"Financing the SDGs: Revealing the Links between Illicit Financial Flows and Domestic Resource Mobilization"

This side event, co-organized by the South Centre, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, the Global Alliance for Tax Justice and the Civil Society Financing for Development Group, drew together tax justice activists, policy makers and multilateral institutions to make the case for urgent and adequate measures to curb illicit financial flows (IFF) and enhance domestic resource mobilization (DRM).

Panelists presented their analysis and practical experiences regarding the drain IFF causes on DRM requirements. The shortcomings of the OECD “non-cooperative jurisdictions list” and the EU’s “black list” served as examples to demonstrate that no adequate measures are agreed to reign in the enablers of IFF. The scale of IFF through tax dodging by multinational companies and high net worth individuals constitute a major impediment to DRM. Against this background, this session highlighted that curtailing IFF is a precondition for enhanced DRM and to promote international cooperation, including within the framework of the UN FFD process.