The CoE presents preliminary results of illicit financial flows from ilegal activities

Under the tenth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime, on October 16th 2020, the side event “Illegal Financial Flows from Illegal Activities: First Estimates from Latin America” was held.

During the session, the Conceptual Framework for measuring indicator 16.4.1 of the Sustainable Development Goals: total value of illicit financial flows in and out” was presented and preliminary results of the Pilot on Measuring Illicit Financial Flows were also presented. This pilot is conducted by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the Centre of Excellence for Statistical Information on Governance, Public Security, Victimization and Justice (UNODC-INEGI CoE), as well as the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

The participants were Jean-Luc Lemahieu, Director of the Division for Policy Analysis and Public Affairs of UNODC, Enrico Bisogno, Head of the Data Development and Dissemination Unit of UNODC, Steve Mac Feeley, Chief Statistician of UNCTAD, as well as Salomé Flores, Coordinator of the UNODC-INEGI CoE.

Mr. Lemahieu highlighted the importance of combating IFFs as a component of global efforts to promote justice and strong institutions through the optimal use of economic resources. Mr. Enrico Bisogno, indicated that the IFFs measurement framework identifies four types of illicit activities: i) tax and commercial activities; ii) illegal markets; iii) corruption; and iv) exploitation-type activities and financing of crime and terrorism. Steve Mac Feeley stressed that UNCTAD has focused on defining the framework for measuring IFFs arising from tax and trade practices and aggressive tax avoidance, highlighting the porosity of the boundary between legal, illegal and illicit practices. In addition, UNCTAD will invite countries on the African continent to participate in this pilot during the Pan-African Conference on IFFs and Taxation in November 2020.

After presenting the data, formulas and preliminary estimates of the drug market and migrant smuggling in Mexico, Salomé Flores highlighted that one of the challenges of the pilot was adapting the methodology to the regional and national context, as well as to specific markets. She also stressed that the pilot helped to provide analytical capabilities to participating countries for the understanding of the illicit markets to be measured.