Combating Illicit Financial Flows

Context

Illicit financial flows (IFFs) are a complex global challenge. The term refers to financial flows that are illicit due to their:

• Origin, such as corruption or drug dealing
• Use, for example terrorist financing
• Transfers, particularly money laundering

Criminal activities linked to IFFs destabilise societies, support autocracies and terrorism and exacerbate poverty and inequality.

Objective

The capacities of regional and global systems are strengthened to take action against illicit financial flows.

Approach

The project pursues the holistic approach to reducing IFFs adopted by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). This approach involves preventing IFFs, supporting financial investigations and recovering stolen assets.

Working with global and regional authorities and organisations, the project devises new approaches, tools and strategies to combat IFFs. Criminals are constantly developing and using new methods to conceal the illicit origin of financial flows. In this rapidly changing landscape, the tools for combating IFFs need to be updated constantly too. The project supports these innovations in partnership with those responsible on a global and regional level.

It also fosters cross-regional exchange between institutions and networks. Through the exchange formats developed by the project, good practice can be shared and rolled out on a large scale. To this end, the project collects regional and global learning experiences from both partners and the implementation of German development cooperation, processes them and shares them in the global discussion to promote a holistic, coordinated approach to curbing IFFs.

Last update: February 2025