MEDIA STATEMENT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
21 April 2017
World Bank and IMF, Help #StopTheBleeding Of Africa’s Wealth!
As the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) hold their Spring meetings in Washington, DC, billions of dollars due to African nations are illicitly leaving the continent.
Africans Rising for Justice, Peace and Dignity, an emerging pan-African citizens’ movement, condemns the World Bank’s and IMF’s lack of action on and complicity in illicit financial flows from Africa and calls on them, as well as African governments and regional bodies, to act to #StopTheBleeding of African wealth now.
According to the Economic Commission for Africa, illicit financial flows from the continent could be as much as US$50 billion a year. That amounts to approximately double the official development assistance that Africa receives. The well documented Africa Progress Panel and Mbeki High Level Panels concluded that “Africa loses more in illicit outflows than it gains in aid and foreign direct investment”.
Multinational corporations are the main drivers of illicit financial outflows, through practices such as trade mispricing, under-invoicing of exports, exaggeration of import values and general tax avoidance schemes.
Illicit financial flows are robbing the continent of much needed resources for economic development, education, healthcare, climate mitigation, infrastructure development and other essential services. These vital resources could help create the quality jobs our young people throughout the continent crave. Instead, we see the steady flow of money to illegal tax havens and shadowy offshore bank accounts as well as through corruption and tax avoidance.
We also see the World Bank and IMF, and many of our governments, promoting a neoliberal agenda and a global trade system that promotes this plunder. We, the citizens and descendants of Africa, as part of this emerging movement, are outraged by illicit financial outflows and the centuries of oppression. We condemn the plunder of our natural resources and the suppression of our fundamental human rights.
Said Kumi Naidoo, Africans Rising Launch Director: “The neoliberal agenda has created a continuous cycle of debt and depletion. Illicit financial flows continue a pattern of exploitation, feeding the greed of elites at the expense of the people.”
“We condemn the World Bank and the IMF for their silence and complicity on this issue. The Africa we want uses the continent’s vast resources in the interest of her people and future generations, “ said Naidoo.
Africans Rising Coordinator, Muhammed Lamin Saidykhan, stressed: “Illicit financial flows drain the vital resources needed to build the stronger Africa we know is possible. Young Africans are risking their lives with human traffickers in the desert or on rickety boats in search of a better life. Illicit Financial flows are taking away opportunities young Africans deserve. We call on the international financial institutions and our governments to support transparency measures and stop illicit outflows.”
Said Tendai Murisa, Executive Director of Trust Africa: “We need sufficient public energy and an outcry for an immediate end to these practices. Our governments and regional processes should play their part in fast tracking mechanisms and laws for compliance with the new thinking.”
Trust Africa leads the #StopTheBleeding Campaign to End Illicit Financial Flows From Africa.
As Africans Rising for Justice, Peace, and Dignity, we are determined to foster an Africa-wide solidarity and unity of purpose of the Peoples of Africa to build the Future we want – a right to peace, social inclusion and shared prosperity.
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JOIN THE MOVEMENT:
Africans Rising will officially launch on Africa Liberation Day, #25May 2017 with events throughout the continent and in the diaspora. Join the movement by signing our founding charter, The Kilimanjaro Declaration. Participate in the launch by:
- Wearing red, to signify the blood that was shed for African liberation – a liberation that still eludes far too many Africans – and the bleeding of the continent’s resources and wealth that continues today.
- Gathering in groups between 12 noon and 14h00 to read out the Kilimanjaro Declaration and a list of demands for changes you would like to see happen
- Turning off your lights from 20h00 and 21h00 in solidarity with the millions of Africans with no access to electricity, and lighting a candle to illuminate the need for brighter leadership and governance.
We especially invite participation in a featured event at Goree Island, Senegal – a UN World Heritage Site, symbolic of the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
#25MayGoree #25May2017 #AfricansRising #AfricaWeWant #Solidarity
For more information, contact:
Grant Clark
+27 63 567 9719
Muhammed Lamin Saidykhan
+220 988 4761 / +220 688 4761
Muhammedlamin@africans-rising.org
Skype: lamin.saidykhan3
Kumi Naidoo
Skype: kumi-naidoo
