Independent Expert Meeting on Finance, Monetary Affairs, Economic Planning and Integration

IntroductionThe Africa Union Commission (AUC) in partnership with the Africa Development Bank (AFDB) and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) are organising an Independent Experts’ Meeting on Mobilisation of Domestic Resources: Fighting against Corruption and Illicit Financial Flows. This meeting is meant to provide a forum for independent1 experts from Africa and beyond to articulate challenges and propose solutions concerning three thematic areas: domestic resource mobilization, the fight against corruption and the fight against illicit financial flows (IFFs).Background:In 2015, the African Union Assembly of Heads of State and Government adopted Agenda 2063, which outlined the continent’s aims for its socio-economic transformation over the succeeding 50 years. This document expresses many of the same aims as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, to which African countries also agreed in 2015. As outlined in these two frameworks, one of the main methods that Africa has decided to use to finance its development is through increased mobilization and use of domestic resources. It is widely accepted that the realisation of the goals spelt out in the two development Agendas, will depend on the ability of the continent to mobilise the substantial financial resources required for their implementation; indeed, analysis by AUC, ECA and others has underlined that domestic resources have a number of advantages compared to foreign financing (such as greater predictability and reliability in terms of the level of flows, and avoiding aid dependence); moreover, only greater mobilization of domestic resources can meet the continent’s current funding.

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