SC Side Event to the Global Conference of the Platform for Collaboration on Tax, 15 February 2018

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

Date:                15 February 2018, 6:15-7:15 PM

Venue:             Conference Room 11, United Nations, New York

Organizers:    The South Centre, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, the Global Alliance for Tax Justice (GATJ) and the Civil Society Financing for Development (FfD) Group

The South Centre, with the Global Alliance for Tax Justice, the Civil Society Financing for Development Group, and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, convened a side event entitled “Financing the SDGs: Revealing the Links between Illicit Financial Flows (IFF) and Domestic Resource Mobilization” on the occasion of the first Global Conference of the Platform for Collaboration on Tax, on 15 February 2018 in the United Nations.  Effective measures to curb illicit flows require eliminating power imbalances that have proved as obstacles to international tax cooperation among sovereign states and tax jurisdictions. The shortcomings of the OECD “non-cooperative jurisdictions list” and the EU’s “black list” serve as cases in point to demonstrate the inadequate measures’ rein in the enablers of IFF.  His Excellency Jerry Matthews Matjila, Permanent Representative of South Africa to the United Nations, in opening the session, warned that the Platform for Collaboration on Tax should not weaken the role of the UN in tax matters.  Speakers in the session included (from left to right in the picture of the panel below) Thomas Maettig, Project on Dialogue on Globalization, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung; Dereje Alemayehu, Chair of the Global Alliance for Tax Justice; Manuel F. Montes, Permanent Observer and Senior Advisor, the South Centre; Ambassador Matjila; Gamal Ibrahim, Chief, Finance and Private Sector Section, Macroeconomic Policy Division, UN Economic Commission for Africa; Hannah Schmelzer, Senior Policy Officer, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany; and Pooja Rangaprasad, independent consultant on tax and development.

Programme