Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs)

As custodian agencies of SDG Indicator 16.4.1 "Total value of inward and outward illicit financial flows, in current United States dollars", UNODC and UNCTAD (the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) are leading the work to develop a statistical methodology and a measurement standard to estimate Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs).

Since 2017 the two co-custodians Agencies have been working on a series of coordinated actions that include:

  • The development of a conceptual framework for the statistical measurement of illicit financial flows
  • The development of methodological guidelines to measure IFFs associated with selected illegal market activities
  • The testing of the methodology to measure illicit financial flows in Latin America, Africa and Asia-Pacific.

Conceptual & methodological development

Conceptual framework for the Statistical Measurement of Illicit Financial Flows - English, Spanish

IFF projects

Asia-Pacific Project
Project duration: July 2020 - December 2022

Project partners: UNODC, UNCTAD, ESCAP

Pilot countries: to be identified – Call for expression of interest (Status: closed)

Project funding: UNDESA

 Latin-America project 

Project duration: July 2017- December 2020

Project partners: UNODC, UNCTAD, UNODC-INEGI CoE

Pilot countries: Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador

Project funding: UNDESA

Events

16 October 2020, 14.00-14.50 (Vienna time) - 10th UNTOC-COP Side Event - Illicit Financial Flows from Illegal Activities: first estimates from Latin America

PowerPoint presentations:

UNCTAD 
UNODC
UNODC-INEGI Center of Excellence

22 September 2020, Asia-Pacific Stats Cafe series: Estimating the size of illicit financial flows: Strengthening national capacity to monitor SDG target 16.4 Venue: online webinar

16-17 July 2019, Task Force meeting on statistical methodologies for measuring illicit financial flows Venue: Geneva, Switzerland

20-22 November 2018, First Regional Technical Meeting on the Measurement of Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) Venue: Mexico City, Mexico

20-22 June 2018, Second Expert Meeting on Statistical Methodologies for Measuring Illicit Financial Flows Venue: Geneva, Switzerland

12 -14 December 2017, UNODC-UNCTAD Expert Consultation on the SDG Indicator on Illicit Financial Flows (IFF) Venue: Vienna, Austria