Illicit Financial Flows - CC BY 2.0

Bjørn Lomborg, a leading speaker on addressing the world’s greatest challenges, calls for the reduction of illicit financial flows

Raleigh Addington
Raleigh Addington
editor at Chartwell Speakers

Writing for Project Syndicate, convener of the Copenhagen Consensus Center Bjørn Lomborg argues that one of the biggest problems affecting the world’s poor is one that few have ever heard about: illicit financial flows.

The Copenhagen Consensus Center recently asked 62 teams of top economists to determine where limited resources could do the most good by 2030. Bjørn notes that whilst “some of the targets that they identified – such as increased food security, expanded educational opportunity, and improved health care – were unsurprising…one recommendation – curbing illicit financial flows – was unexpected.”

Currently, illicit financial flows amount to nearly ten times the total sum of international aid, usually through “kleptocratic regimes” that channel some of their countries’ wealth into Swiss bank accounts. As such Bjørn believes that curbing the flow of “dirty developmental money” should be a high priority on the next development agenda – just “imagine how much good that money could do if it were channelled toward welfare-enhancing projects.”

Click here to read Bjørn’s proposals to tackle this issue.

 

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