Illicit Financial Flows a Drain on Development in Sub-Saharan Africa Spanjers, Joseph AID CAPITAL FLIGHT ILLICIT WEALTH CAPITAL OUTFLOW The article is based on the GFI report which discovered that as a percent of GDP, Sub-Saharan Africa suffers the largest illicit outflows of Any Region in the World. In the ten years of the study, average annual illicit outflows from Sub-Saharan Africa averaged 5.5% of the region’s GDP, a ratio greater than that of any other region in the world. For a region that dominates the attention of the development community, it is shocking that such a relatively large amount of capital has been allowed to leave these countries. This capital could have been used domestically for private sector-led development and increases in productive capacity, job creation, and public budgets; instead. Curbing these illicit flows is a hidden resource for development. In the case of Sub-Saharan Africa, the impact of cutting illicit outflows would be substantial. It is time to start making progress towards a world where illicit financial flows are no longer a reality; the case of Sub-Saharan Africa demonstrates that this Sustainable Development Goal could be a concrete step in that direction. Washington Global Financial Intergrity 2015. 2015. Text 2p. http://iffoadatabase.trustafrica.org/iff/illicit_financial_flows_a_drain_on_development_in_sub-saharan_africa.pdf