VOA: How Committed is US to Africa? $55B Worth, White House Says
VOA quotes FACT Executive Director Ian Gary on the importance of supporting African states’ fight against illicit financial flows.
VOA quotes FACT Executive Director Ian Gary on the importance of supporting African states’ fight against illicit financial flows.
Join FACT and the Hudson Institute for an in-person, Senate briefing on September 28th to learn about the scale of the problem posed by professional “enablers” and the future of this crucial reform agenda.
To tackle global corruption, the U.S. must start by cleaning up its own house through the reforms discussed in this blog, as well as by working collaboratively with African nations, civil society actors, and professionals to properly stem the root causes and key loopholes that enable capital flight, illicit financial flows, and corrupt or criminal financial abuses.
Africa loses significantly more cash to capital flight than it obtains from development aid, external borrowing, or foreign direct investment. In a real sense, Africa is a “net creditor” to the rest of the world.
As a reporter in Uganda, I often saw how access to quality health care and education was limited because of low government revenues and budget allocations. While Uganda and other African countries are certainly recipients of foreign aid from the West, and generate their own tax revenues, it is also clear that illicit financial flows are bleeding out of the African continent, enabled in part by the policies of the West. We now need new partnerships with Africa to “stop the bleeding.”
This FACT sheet outlines the devastating impact of financial secrecy on Africa, Latin America, and communities of color in the United States.