Extractives and Illicit Financial Flows: Toward Climate Financing for a Just Transition

By Simon Rakei

The Institute for African Alternatives in late 2021 commissioned researcher and activist Simon Rakei to write a paper that contributes to IFAA’s new Climate Justice program. His paper is entitled ‘Extractives and Illicit Financial Flows: Toward Climate Financing for a Just Transition’ (available on the IFAA website at https://bit.ly/3xJzCjZ ).

It is estimated that the African continent between 1980 and 2009, lost between $579 billion dollars and $1,4 trillion due to illicit financial flows (IFFs). Not only has this staggering amount of wayward money affected millions of people, laid waste to economies stunted development (while a shady few accumulate profit and power), but it is enough to wipe out the external debt of the continent twice over by conservative estimates.

Africa is particularly susceptible to looting due to its abundance of natural resources combined with its poor governance track record. Governments and intergovernmental agencies face huge obstacles to effectively tackling the problem.

In his paper, Simon explores the relationship between extractive industries and IFFs in order to consider what a review of extractive and tax justice literature anchored in development considerations reveals about possible climate financing possibilities to aid a just transition from fossil fuels to a green/non-carbon-based energy system.

Please join us for this critical presentation. It will be hosted via Zoom as well as live-streamed on our FB page ‘The IFAA Forum’ on Tuesday 5^th July at 3 pm.

Register at this link https://bit.ly/3HPovuu

Simon Rakei has a special research interest in Development and Social Justice on the African continent. He was a founding member of the Alternative Energy Popular Education Programme, and a past winner of the South African Sociological Association 2019 MA essay prize for his article “African Philosophy and the Black Radical Tradition”.