Advocacy work to curb illicit financial flows and increase financial transparency that can spur development is only getting started, the Financial Transparency Coalition said at the end of the 6th Financial Transparency Conference held in Jakarta, Indonesia last week.

The coalition which brings together civil society, governments, and the world’s foremost experts on illicit financial flows, explored ways to stop the illicit financial flows that are stifling economic growth and development and to strengthen the broader movement for financial transparency. 

Policy Forum, a network representing over 100 different Civil Society Organizations working together to increase informed civil society participation in policy making, together with the Tax Justice Network – Africa and Actionaid Tanzania, on Sunday 17th of June 2012 unveiled a report on Tax incentives and revenue losses in Tanzania to about 90 members of parliament in Dodoma.

Policy Forum this week held a special half-day discussion on illicit financial flows from Africa with two international experts on the topic. Raymond Baker, the founder and CEO of the Global Financial Integrity, the leading global institute on illicit financial flow studies was joined by Alvin Mosioma, Coordinator of the Tax Justice Network for Africa, an institution which aims to promote socially just, democratic and progressive taxation systems in Africa.

This week the Tanzanian and Swedish governments are attending a high level meeting in Busan, South Korea, to discuss development aid effectiveness. But to ensure that development aid actually promotes development, governments must also deal with the illicit flows of capital that leaves developing countries every year – a sum that is ten times larger than the annual amount of total global development aid.

Policy Forum (PF) was invited to attend a workshop on the promotion of transparency and accountability of revenue from the extractive industries (energy and minerals) hosted by the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA), the National Democratic Institute (NDI), and Revenue Watch (RW). We have reproduced hereunder what we observed and noted. Please treat these remarks with due caution, as they are merely indicative (and not authoritative) of what transpired.