GLOBAL Financial Integrity has praised the United Nations High-Level Panel (HLP) of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda for making the curtailment of illicit financial flows and tax evasion an explicit goal of the global anti-poverty agenda following the expiration of the Millennium Development Goals in 2015.

The report from the HLP, published late last week, follows the release of a new joint study by GFI and the African Development Bank which found illicit financial outflows drained roughly $1.3 trillion from Africa over the past thirty years, making the continent a net creditor to the rest of the world of up to $1.4 trillion.

The new report from the HLP panel raises pressure on G8 leaders, meeting in Northern Ireland later this month, to take meaningful action to address illicit financial flows and tax evasion.

GFI President Raymond Baker, GFI Managing Director Tom Cardamone, and GFI Legal Counsel and Director of Government Affairs Heather Lowe spelled out their policy recommendations for the G8 Summit in a letter to UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne last month.