A delegation hosted by the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center.

In 2015, Thabo Mbeki commissioned a high level report on Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) from Africa. The report indicated that over $50 billion in IFFs leaves Africa annually, an amount nearly equal to the official development assistance sent to the continent each year. IFFs are of particular concern amidst current changes in development funding trends and increasing environmental degradation. The third International UN Conference on Financing for Development in 2015 named African countries as particularly vulnerable and in need of global support in achieving positive socio-economic transformation. African trade unions and civil society organizations are leading this discussion and have responded with a variety initiatives including the launch of a transnational movement to educate about IFFs and mobilize citizens to advocate for corporate and government accountability.

Join us at the UC Berkeley Labor Center on September 25, 2017, to hear from the delegation of experts from African trade unions and civil society organizations on Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs).

This event is free and open to the public. Please register for the event.

Delegate Biographies:

Joel Odigie is the Coordinator of Human and Trade Union Rights at the International Trade Union Confederation-Africa. He holds a Master’s Degree in Labor Policies and Globalization from the University of Kassel and the Berlin School of Economics. Mr. Odigie has an extensive background in trade union organizing and social movement-building. He is the lead coordinator for the Stop the Bleeding Campaign, working to curb illicit financial flows in Africa. Mr. Odigie specializes in working with unions to organize workers in the informal economy and to provide services to migrant workers. Odigie is a vocal thought leader on progressive methods to foster development in Africa.

Luckystar Miyandazi is the Policy Officer in the African Institutions Program at the The European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM) where she works on diverse policy issues including: influencing the quality and impacting the effectiveness of overall debates on Illicit financial flows and domestic resource mobilization between Africa, the European Union and beyond. Before joining ECDPM, she worked as the Tax Power Campaign Africa Coordinator at Actionaid International, where she led the development, coordination and delivery of pan-African campaign actions, events and mobilization activities within 15 countries in Africa. Luckystar has also worked before as the Coordinator for the East African Tax and Governance Network, hosted by the Tax Justice Network-Africa, a pro bono case manager with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in the Hague-Netherlands, as a researcher with the African Centre for Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD) in Durban-South Africa and as an intern for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Through her work in Africa, Luckystar has written a number of informative articles and reports and managed research publications on: treaties, incentives, base erosion and profit shifting, tax and inequality, tax and women’s rights and others on fiscal policy. She has also spoken on several panels on taxation and financing for development in Africa at various international conferences and other forums in Africa, Europe, the US and Asia. Luckystar holds a master’s degree (Distinction) in International Relations and Economics from the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore- ASERI in Milan, Italy.

Cloudine Bwesigye holds a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology from Mbarara University of Science and Technology in Uganda and a Master of Arts in Rural Development from Annamalai University in India. She is currently Program Officer with the East Africa Trade Union Confederation (EATUC) working to build capacity of workers around issues of regional integration, social protection and decent work. She has represented EATUC at various regional forums including: discussing the role and concerns of trade unions belonging to the African Union Continental Free Trade Area, Challenges in the Implementation of the East African Common Market Protocol and on Bi-partite training on Advocacy, campaign and lobbying of the East African Community (EAC) Annex II, which provides the Schedule of Free Movement of Workers in the region.

Cloudine has been one of the leading figures on building the capacity of EATUC affiliates in the region on Tax Justice, a campaign investigating the depth of impact of illicit financial flows (IFFs) within the East African Community countries. This campaign has been focused on strengthening four sectors crucial within the region: health, education, infrastructure development and provision of the social protection floors. Other aspects of this campaign include: good governance and democracy and fighting corruption as fundamental tools for regional development.