Launch of an Anti-Illicit Financial Flows Platform in Togo
Available data shows that Africa’s losses due to illicit financial flows have nearly doubled, rising from $50 billion per year in 2015 to $90 billion in 2020. This represents 3.7% of the continent’s total economic output and is nearly equivalent to the total amount of foreign investment and aid that Africa receives each year (ECA, 2020). Corruption causes Africa an estimated annual loss of $148 billion, or 25% of Africa’s GDP (AfDB, 2015). The rate of illicit financial flows (IFFs) is particularly high in West Africa at 38%, compared to 28% in North Africa, 13% in Southern Africa, 11% in East Africa, and 10% in Central Africa (Kar et al., 2010).
Civil society organizations and journalists play a crucial role in efforts to combat illicit financial flows within the framework of international, regional, and subregional legal instruments designed to address this issue.
However, the cartographic study conducted by Pro-CEMA (June 2018) and the EU Roadmap for Engagement with Civil Society in Togo reveal very low levels of citizen and civil society participation in the fight against corruption and IFFs in Togo, due, among other factors, to a lack of civic education and limited knowledge of the instruments available to combat these matters.
Given the important role of CSOs and journalists in the fight against IFFs, and with the aim of better coordinating and planning anti-IFF efforts through effective advocacy initiatives, ANCE, with financial support from GIABA, has supported several exchange meetings among CSO actors, assisted in drafting the constitutive texts, and organized a constituent general assembly for the creation of the Anti-Illicit Financial Flows Platform (PAFFI) from May 23–24, 2025, in Lomé.
This platform brings together twenty CSOs working in the areas of AML/CFT, transparency, accountability, and the fight against corruption. A coordinating Board of eleven (11) members has been established, with the Executive Secretariat run by ANCE.