LINKAGES BETWEEN ILLICIT FINANCIAL FLOWS AND SOCIAL PROTECTION

The report examines how illicit financial flows (IFFs) deprive East and Southern African governments of resources needed for social protection. Focusing on Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, it compares the scale of financial losses from tax evasion, corruption, and trade misinvoicing against the funding gaps in social assistance programmes. The study concludes that recovering these lost funds could significantly increase the coverage and adequacy of social protection floors for vulnerable groups.

• Africa loses approximately US$88.6 billion annually through illicit financial flows (IFFs), a sum that is nearly double the US$48 billion received as official development assistance (ODA).
• In Uganda, corruption in the environmental sector alone results in an annual loss of UGX 2.28 trillion, which is twenty times the amount required to provide Social Assistance Grants for Empowerment (SAGE) to currently excluded older persons and nearly four times the total social protection allocation for vulnerable groups from 2016 to 2021.
• Tanzania's social safety net programme for the 2019-2023 period could be fully financed by just half of the US$1.83 million lost annually through IFFs, excluding losses from corruption.
• Zambia lost approximately US$14.5 billion between 1995 and 2014 due to the export misinvoicing of copper, a sum that could have tripled the budget for the Food Security Pack (FSP) programme from 2015 to 2022.
• Zambia's annual losses of US$2 billion through corporate tax avoidance total US$16 billion over eight years, which is nearly double the budget for the Social Cash Transfers (SCT) programme during that same period.
• Zimbabwe's annual loss of US$570.7 million through IFFs is 13 times higher than the country's total social protection expenditure in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Zimbabwe loses an estimated US$1.5 billion in gold annually, which is thirteen times the total budgetary allocations for the Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM) from 2015 to 2021.
• Social protection coverage in Sub-Saharan Africa is significantly lower than global averages; only 17.4% of the population is covered by at least one benefit compared to 47% worldwide, and only 6.7% of persons with severe disabilities receive benefits compared to 33.5% globally.
• The report identifies three primary drivers of IFFs in Africa: commercial practices (65%), criminal activity (30%), and corruption by government officials (5%).

APA

African Forum and Network on Debt and Development (2022). LINKAGES BETWEEN ILLICIT FINANCIAL FLOWS AND SOCIAL PROTECTION. https://afrodad.org/sites/default/files/publications/Linkages-Between-Illicit-Financial-Flows-and-Social-Protection-Eastern-and-Southern-Africa.pdf

Chicago

African Forum and Network on Debt and Development. LINKAGES BETWEEN ILLICIT FINANCIAL FLOWS AND SOCIAL PROTECTION. 2022. https://afrodad.org/sites/default/files/publications/Linkages-Between-Illicit-Financial-Flows-and-Social-Protection-Eastern-and-Southern-Africa.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=African Forum and Network on Debt and Development |title=LINKAGES BETWEEN ILLICIT FINANCIAL FLOWS AND SOCIAL PROTECTION |date=May 2022 |url=https://afrodad.org/sites/default/files/publications/Linkages-Between-Illicit-Financial-Flows-and-Social-Protection-Eastern-and-Southern-Africa.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{africanforumandnetworkondebtanddevelopment2022linkages, author = {{African Forum and Network on Debt and Development}}, title = {{LINKAGES BETWEEN ILLICIT FINANCIAL FLOWS AND SOCIAL PROTECTION}}, institution = {African Forum and Network on Debt and Development}, year = {2022}, month = may, url = {https://afrodad.org/sites/default/files/publications/Linkages-Between-Illicit-Financial-Flows-and-Social-Protection-Eastern-and-Southern-Africa.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }