Illicit capital flows pose major challenges to the development, peace, security and stability of states, jeopardizing the integrity of financial structures and depriving countries of important resources. Illicit financial flows (IFFs), (money earned, transferred or used illegally) originate from different criminal activities: i) tax and commercial interests, ii) illegal markets, iii) corruption, iv) human exploitation and the financing of terrorism. According to UNCTAD estimates, the annual volume of criminal capital flows from Africa alone will reach 3.7% of the continent's GDP in 2020[1]. So, in addition to the social damage caused by the underlying crimes, there is also a significant loss of revenue for governments, with a wider impact on the economies of the African continent. UNCTAD and UNODC have estimated that in the African region alone, between 2010 and 2016, an average of $89 billion a year was taken from state budgets[2].

IFFs are introduced into the legitimate financial system through increasingly complex money-laundering processes, requiring whole-of-government actions that nevertheless encounters numerous limitations in African jurisdictions. The compartmentalization of the preventive and repressive aspects of national AML/CFT chains reduces the capacity to prevent, detect, investigate, prosecute and convict actors, as well as recover ill-acquired gains. In addition, the multiplicity of forms, origins and international nature of illicit financial flows requires strong regional and international coordination, which is not always activated by the players involved. The fight against illicit financial flows therefore requires greater efforts to prevent, detect and penalize these practices, in order to deal with their effects as well as their root causes. These issues involve all economic stakeholders: civil society, the private sector, the State and the Government, as well as the international community.

In these AML/CFT chains, the pursuit of a comprehensive "follow the money and get it back" approach is an effective mean of combating both transnational organized crime (TOC) and terrorism in Africa, offering the opportunity to tackle various dimensions of illicit activities through their pecuniary traces in order to make them less lucrative. Working simultaneously at national and transnational levels, and coordinating around a global strategy of multi-stakeholder engagement, is the best way to combat IFFs, and needs to be further developed.

As part of its projects to combat IFFs, Expertise France wishes to build up a roster of experts who may be deployed for short-, medium- or long-term assignments with partner administrations or organizations. The range of expertise required to implement these projects is large. Building up this roster will enable us to identify profiles of interest for deployment around three general themes: financial investigations and regulations, justice and policing.

Key Activities

• Ensure the identification, implementation and quality control of activities under his/her responsibility (e.g. diagnostics, training, working group facilitation, support in drafting bills, methodologies);
• Identify and draft terms of reference for the contracting of short-term expertise, in coordination with Expertise France;
• Network with relevant stakeholders in partner countries and maintain close working relations ties with local administrations and relevant regional and international organizations;
• Represent the project at national and international technical meetings;
• Participate in the strategic reflection and technical animation of projects within regional and continental communities of practice;
• Produce regular, high-quality reports on project activities.
• Write, in collaboration with other experts, mission reports, the annual progress report and the final report.

Example of activities to be carried out - Financial Investigations / Regulations

• Support Ministries of Finance and supervisory bodies in the effective implementation of the national AML/CFT strategy;
• Raise awareness and train representatives of financial institutions, designated non-financial businesses and professions, and non-profit organizations in their duty to report;
• Support the conduct or updating of national risk assessments in target countries;
• Draft AML/CFT legislation and regulations;
• Develop collaborative methodologies between financial intelligence units and reporting organizations.

Example of activities to be carried out – Justice

• Support the adoption of laws, regulations and policies designed to penalize money laundering and the financing of terrorism;
• Support public prosecutors in conducting investigations at national and regional level;
• Train magistrates in AML/CFT and provide them with appropriate tools; train public prosecutors in financial investigation techniques, in collaboration with other players in the criminal justice system;
• Support the structuring of specialized AML/CFT judicial training courses;
• Support legal professions subject to suspicious transaction reporting obligations, such as lawyers and notaries, in structuring their obligations and training them in reporting;
• Support the digitization of court rulings at national level.

Example of activities to be carried out – Police

• Ensure capacity building for investigation units in the conduct of financial crime investigations;
• Support the conduct of international investigations between peer administrations and/or through international bodies;
• Support the conduct of parallel investigations into money laundering and related crimes;
• Strengthen whistleblower protection systems;

[1] Tackling Illicit Financial Flows for Sustainable Development in Africa (unctad.org)

[2] Africa could gain $89 billion annually by curbing illicit financial flows, UN says