AfricaFocus Bulletin
February 11, 2015 (150211)
(Reposted from sources cited below)

Editor’s Note

“The destruction of the earth’s environment is the human rights
challenge of our time. … The most devastating effects are visited
on the poor, those with no involvement in creating the problem. A
deep injustice. Just as we argued in the 1980s that those who
conducted business with apartheid South Africa were aiding and
abetting an immoral system, today we say nobody should profit from
the rising temperatures, seas and human suffering caused by the
burning of fossil fuels.” Archbishop Desmond Tutu

For a version of this Bulletin in html format, more suitable for
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Please view and distribute widely this powerful short video by
Archbishop Desmond Tutu: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlh_ptOljkg

While the actual impact and potential threat of climate change
threaten the entire planet, Archbishop Tutu’s remarks reiterate the
further truth that while some profit from causing the destruction,
it is the most vulnerable countries and the most vulnerable within
each country who bear the disproportionate burdens.

As noted in the articles by Deirdre Smith and Naomi Klein cited with
links immediately below the transcript of Tutu’s remarks, that is
why the hashtags #divest and #BlackLivesMatter must be linked.

The differential value given to different lives, by race and place,
matches the hierarchy of economic and political power in today’s
world. That reality, established over centuries, is not new. But
while one may or may not agree with Naomi Klein that climate change
can be the essential catalyst for new urgency in resolving these
interlinked crises, the linkage cannot be denied. Nor can anyone
safely ignore Archbishop Tutu’s reminder that “time is running out.”

The divestment movement is only part of the campaign for climate
justice, just as it was only part of the struggle to end apartheid.
But the momentum is growing, and contributes to the pressure for
governments to act and for investors to turn their attention to
clean energy. On February 13 and 14, groups around the world will be
participating in “Global Divestment Day” calling for full divestment
from fossil fuels and investment in a clean energy future (See
http://gofossilfree.org/divestment-day/ for details).

See below for summary talking points from AfricaFocus, links to
other relevant climate justice groups (including the Pan African
Climate Justice Alliance), recent news articles on renewable energy,
and previous AfricaFocus Bulletins on related issues.

++++++++++++++++++++++end editor’s note+++++++++++++++++

Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Climate Change

Sep 22, 2014

Video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlh_ptOljkg

Transcript of Archbishop Tutu’s remarks on climate change:

“The destruction of the earth’s environment is the human rights
challenge of our time.

Over the 25 years that climate change has been on the world’s agenda
global emissions have risen unchecked while real world impacts have
taken hold in earnest.

Time is running out.

We are already experiencing loss of life and livelihood due to
intensified storms, shortage of fresh water, spread of disease,
rising food prices, and the creation of climate refugees.

The most devastating effects are visited on the poor, those with no
involvement in creating the problem. A deep injustice.

Just as we argued in the 1980s that those who conducted business
with apartheid South Africa were aiding and abetting an immoral
system, today we say nobody should profit from the rising
temperatures, seas and human suffering caused by the burning of
fossil fuels.

We can no longer continue feeding our addiction to fossil fuels as
if there is no tomorrow. For there will be no tomorrow.

We are on the cusp of a global transition to a new safe energy
economy. We must support our leaders to make the correct, moral
choices.

* Freeze further exploration for new fossil sources. We cannot
maintain a livable temperature and climate for humanity if we burn
more than a fraction of the fossil fuels already discovered.

* Hold those responsible for climate damages accountable. Change the
profit incentive by demanding legal liability for unsustainable
environmental practices.

* Encourage governments to stop accepting funding from the fossil
fuel industry that blocks action on climate change.

* Divest from fossil fuels and invest in a clean energy future. Move
your money out of the problem and into solutions.

There is a word we use in South Africa that describes human
relationships: Ubuntu. It says: I am because you are. My success and
my failures are bound up in yours. We are made for each other, part
of one family, the human family, with one shared earth.

God bless you.”

************************************************************

Key articles on the link between #divest and #BlackLivesMatter

* “Why the Climate Movement Must Stand with Ferguson,” by Deirdre
Smith, August 20, 2014

http://350.org/ / direct URL: http://tinyurl.com/m8focoy

It was not hard for me to make the connection between the tragedy in
Ferguson, Missouri, and the catalyst for my work to stop the climate
crisis.

It’s all over the news: images of police in military gear pointing
war zone weapons at unarmed black people with their hands in the
air. These scenes made my heart race in an all-to-familiar way. I
was devastated for Mike Brown, his family and the people of
Ferguson. Almost immediately, I closed my eyes and remembered the
same fear for my own family that pangs many times over a given year.

In the wake of the climate disaster that was Hurricane Katrina
almost ten years ago, I saw the same images of police, pointing
warzone weapons at unarmed black people with their hands in the air.
In the name of ‘restoring order,’ my family and their community were
demonized as ‘looters’ and ‘dangerous.’ When crisis hits, the
underlying racism in our society comes to the surface in very clear
ways. Climate change is bringing nothing if not clarity to the
persistent and overlapping crises of our time.

* “Why #BlackLivesMatter Should Transform the Climate Debate,” by
Naomi Klein, December 12, 2014

http://www.thenation.com/ / direct URL: http://tinyurl.com/ojojt4f

Taken together, the picture is clear. Thinly veiled notions of
racial superiority have informed every aspect of the non-response to
climate change so far. Racism is what has made it possible to
systematically look away from the climate threat for more than two
decades. It is also what has allowed the worst health impacts of
digging up, processing and burning fossil fuels–from cancer
clusters to asthma–to be systematically dumped on indigenous
communities and on the neighborhoods where people of colour live,
work and play. The South Bronx, to cite just one example, has
notoriously high asthma rates–and according to one study, a
staggering 21.8 percent of children living in New York City public
housing have asthma, three times higher than the rate for private
housing. The choking of those children is not as immediately lethal
as the kind of choking that stole Eric Garner’s life, but it is very
real nonetheless.

If we refuse to speak frankly about the intersection of race and
climate change, we can be sure that racism will continue to inform
how the governments of industrialized countries respond to this
existential crisis. It will manifest in the continued refusal to
provide serious climate financing to poor countries so they can
protect themselves from heavy weather. It will manifest in the
fortressing of wealthy continents as they attempt to lock out the
growing numbers of people whose homes will become unlivable.

******************************************************

AfricaFocus Summary Talking Points

* Global warming and environmental damage from the fossil-fuel
industry already affect all of us, although responsibility lies
primarily with the rich industrialized countries and the newly
industrializing powers. Africa is the most vulnerable continent, but
extreme weather and sea-level rise have hit New Orleans and New
Jersey as well as Lagos.

* When industries make decisions based on short-term profits,
encouraged by government subsidies to established industries, they
systematically discount damages from “externalities.” Visible
results include the devastation of oil-producing areas in the Niger
Delta and of coal-producing areas, whether in South Africa or West
Virginia. The longer-term consequences in rising temperatures and
more extreme weather will be even more devastating.

* Action to combat climate change depends in part on decisions made
in international conferences, where the primary obstacles to action
are the rich countries and the newly industrializing powers. But
efforts at many other levels are also of decisive importance.
Fossil-fuel divestment campaigns, as they grow and multiply, can
affect investment choices. So can technological innovation. Notably,
clean energy can already be more cost-effective than large-scale
fossil fuel plants in supplying distributed energy access to Africa.

For more from AfricaFocus on Climate Change and the Environment,
visit http://www.africafocus.org/intro-env.php

********************************************************

Key Organizational Contacts on Climate Change and Fossil-Fuel
Divestment

Divestment Student Network (USA)
http://studentsdivest.org/

Climate Justice Alliance (USA)
http://www.ourpowercampaign.org/cja/

Go Fossil Free
http://gofossilfree.org

350.org Africa
http://350africa.org/

Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA)
http://www.pacja.org

*************************************************************

Notable recent reports on economics of renewable energy

* “Renewable energy costs to drop 40 percent in next two years”
02/02/15, new report on worldwide develoopment from International
Renewable Energy Agency
http://tinyurl.com/kvoo34c

* “Africa’s quiet solar revolution,” survey by Christian Science
Monitor, Jan 25, 2015
http://tinyurl.com/mnf5mtz

* “Africa’s Largest Wind Farm,” Dec. 24, 2014, construction
beginning at Lake Turkana
http://tinyurl.com/pau6fyv

* South Africa’s Eskom in crisis over high costs and low efficiency,
renewable projects offer new options.
http://tinyurl.com/qbjgpg5 (Jan 16 article on Eskom) and
http://allafrica.com/stories/201501211312.html (new study on savings
from
renewable energy in South Africa)

* Slow start for renewable energy in Niger Delta, Feb 2, 2015
http://tinyurl.com/mqzd5ao

**************************************************************

Recent AfricaFocus Bulletins on Climate Change

(1) Fossil-Fuel Divestment

November 11, 2014  Africa/Global: Fossil-Fuel Divestment Growing
http://www.africafocus.org/docs14/cc1411b.php

The latest international scientific statement on the disastrous and
potentially irreversible damage from climate change is unambiguous,
as is the imperative for drastic action to curb greenhouse gas
emissions. But political obstacles to moving from rhetoric to action
are virtually unchanged, despite massive demonstrations coinciding
with the UN climate summit in late September. The dispersed fossil-
fuel divestment movement, however, although still too small to curb
the industry, is growing rapidly.

Mar 10, 2013  Africa/Global: Fossil-Fuel Divestment
http://www.africafocus.org/docs13/div1303.php

The fossil-fuel divestment movement now gaining momentum on college
campuses to fight climate change frequently evokes the precedent of
the anti-apartheid divestment campaigns of the 1970s and 1980s. But
there are other Africa connections that are also beginning to be
made. Africa is the continent most vulnerable to climate change and
extreme weather events. American and other multinational companies
have a long history of environmental destruction in areas such as
the Niger Delta. And while many African countries look to fossil-
fuel exploitation to fund their development, the experience of the
“resource curse” shows that the profits may fuel gross inequality
and capital flight rather than development.

(2) Renewable Energy Prospects

September 22, 2014  Africa: Climate Action & Economic Growth
http://www.africafocus.org/docs14/clim1409.php

It is still conventional wisdom to pit action to curb climate change
against economic growth. But the evidence is rapidly accumulating
that this is a false dilemma, buttressed by vested interests in the
fossil fuel industry and a simplistic concept of economic growth.
According to a report just released by the Global Commission on the
Economy and Climate, falling prices for renewable energy and careful
analysis of both costs and benefits of low-carbon vs. high-carbon
investment strategies point to a clear conclusion: saving the planet
and saving the economy go hand in hand.

August 18, 2014  Africa: From Kerosene to Solar
http://www.africafocus.org/docs14/sol1408.php

The largest marketer of solar lamps in Africa, which recently passed
the one million mark in lamps sold, has set an ambitious target for
the industry. “”Our mission is to eradicate the kerosene lamp from
Africa by the end of this decade,” proclaims Solar Aid. Although
achieving this goal would require the pico-solar market to emulate
mobile phone industry’s exponential growth path, it may not be as
utopian as it sounds. According to market research company Navigant
Research, “Off-grid solar lighting for base of the pyramid (BOP)
markets, the leading solar PV consumer product segment, is
transitioning from a humanitarian aspiration to big business.”

June 30, 2014  Africa: Clean Energy Most Cost-Effective
http://www.africafocus.org/docs14/ces1406.php

“From off-grid LED lighting to ‘Skinny Grids,’ we can now provide
energy access with a fraction of the amount of power we used to
need. More importantly, we can unlock affordable initial
interventions — like lighting, mobile phone charging, fans, and TVs
plus a small amount of agro processing — to help people get onto
the energy ladder today rather than forcing them to wait decades for
a grid extension that may never come. … It’s important to
understand that we aren’t just imagining this clean energy market
growth — it’s already happening.” — Justin Guay, Sierra Club

January 21, 2014  South Africa: Renewables Rising, Coal Still King
http://www.africafocus.org/docs14/coal1401.php

“South Africa [is] the world’s sixth-largest coal exporter, seventh-
largest coal producer, and thirteenth-largest CO2 emitter, with per-
capita emissions twice the global average. Ninety-four percent of
the country’s electricity comes from coal … The country’s abundant
solar and wind resources offer a promising renewable energy
alternative. But entrenched political interests connected to the
ruling party are fighting to expand coal’s role in the national
economy.” – Adam Welz, “The Future of Coal”

(3) Destructive Impact of Fossil-Fuel Production

February 26, 2014  Africa: Tracking Toxic Pollution
http://www.africafocus.org/docs14/env1402.php

The damages produced by modern economies, termed “externalities” by
economists, most often do not figure in the market signals shaping
corporate profits and therefore corporate decision-making. The
result, both in advanced economies or around the world, includes not
only the massive threat to our common future through global warming,
but also extraordinary levels of toxic pollution disproportionately
affecting the most vulnerable. Of the top ten toxic threats around
the world identified in a new report, three are in Africa: the
Agbogbloshie Dumpsite for e-waste in Ghana, the entire Niger Delta
region in Nigeria, and the now-closed but still deadly lead mining
site in Kabwe, Zambia.

Aug 12, 2011  Nigeria: Past Time for Oil Cleanup, 1
http://www.africafocus.org/docs11/nig1108a.php

The fact that the environment of the Niger Delta, and that portion
of it known as Ogoniland, has been devastated by oil pollution for
decades should not be news. It has been repeatedly exposed by
Nigerian and international activists in print, court testimony,
photographs, and films, and punctuated by the 1995 martyrdom of Ken
Saro-Wiwa and his fellow Ogoni activists. But this month, for the
first time, a comprehensive scientific survey of oil pollution in
Ogoniland has concluded that the pollution is even more pervasive
than many previously assumed. Simultaneously, in response to a
class-action suit in London, Shell Oil has accepted responsibility
for two massive oil spills in Ogoniland in 1998.

Aug 12, 2011  Nigeria: Past Time for Oil Cleanup, 2
http://www.africafocus.org/docs11/nig1108b.php

“Shell faces a bill of hundreds of millions of dollars after
accepting full liability for two massive oil spills that devastated
a Nigerian community of 69,000 people and may take at least 20 years
to clean up. Experts who studied video footage of the spills at Bodo
in Ogoniland say they could together be as large as the 1989 Exxon
Valdez disaster in Alaska, when 10m gallons of oil destroyed the
remote coastline.” – Guardian

(4) Other Recent AfricaFocus Bulletins On Climate Change

November 11, 2014  Africa/Global: Climate Change Summary Report
http://www.africafocus.org/docs14/cc1411a.php

“The world’s top scientists and governments have issued their
bluntest plea yet to the world: Slash carbon pollution now (at a
very low cost) or risk ‘severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts
for people and ecosystems.’ Scientists have ‘high confidence’ these
devastating impacts occur ‘even with adaptation’ — if we keep doing
little or nothing.” – Joe Romm, Editor, Climate Progress

December 15, 2014  Africa/Global: Postponing Climate Decisions
http://www.africafocus.org/docs14/clim1412.php

“It was not hard for me to make the connection between the tragedy
in Ferguson, Missouri, and the catalyst for my work to stop the
climate crisis. … In the wake of the climate disaster that was
Hurricane Katrina almost ten years ago, I saw the same images of
police, pointing war-zone weapons at unarmed black people with their
hands in the air. … When crisis hits, the underlying racism in our
society comes to the surface in very clear ways.” – Deirdre Smith,
350.org, August 20, 2014

November 18, 2013  Africa: Time to Pay for Climate “Loss and Damage”
http://www.africafocus.org/docs13/clim1311.php

“The U.S. delegation negotiating at the U.N. international climate
change conference in Poland is pushing an agenda of minimising the
role of “Loss and Damage” in the UNFCCC framework, prioritising
private finance in the Green Climate Fund, and delaying the deadline
for post-2020 emission reduction commitments, according to a State
Department negotiating strategy which IPS has seen.” Inter Press
Service

Dec 13, 2012  Africa: Time for Climate Justice
http://www.africafocus.org/docs12/cl1212.php

The latest international conference on climate change has concluded
in Doha, with the predictable “low-ambition” results. Meanwhile,
reports proliferate on the disastrous consequences for Africa and
the entire planet if governments do not begin to overcome their
lethargy in slowing carbon emissions and preparing for adaptation to
the changes from global warming already built into the global
system.

Oct 3, 2012  Southern Africa: Climate Threat to Zambezi Basin
http://www.africafocus.org/docs12/zam1210.php

According to a new study released in September, “There will be a
significant reduction in the amount of water flowing through the
[Zambezi] river system, affecting all eight countries it passes
through. The water that feeds the river is expected to decrease by
between 26 percent and 40 percent in another four decades. But when
the rains do fall, they will be more intense, triggering more
extreme floods.” Nevertheless, says the author of the study,
planning for existing and new dams does not yet take account of the
impact of climate change in reducing power generation and capacity
for flood control.

*****************************************************

AfricaFocus Bulletin is an independent electronic publication
providing reposted commentary and analysis on African issues, with a
particular focus on U.S. and international policies. AfricaFocus
Bulletin is edited by William Minter.

AfricaFocus Bulletin can be reached at africafocus@igc.org. Please
write to this address to subscribe or unsubscribe to the bulletin,
or to suggest material for inclusion. For more information about
reposted material, please contact directly the original source
mentioned. For a full archive and other resources, see
http://www.africafocus.org

February 11, 2015

by GARY LEUPP

Published time: February 09, 2015 10:12
Edited time: February 09, 2015 19:16

http://on.rt.com/aby93h

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras (Reuters / Francois Lenoir)

 

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, referring to Nazi Germany’s four-year occupation of Greece and a forced war-time loan during World War II that saddled the Greek economy in huge debt, wants Berlin to pay reparations.

Tsipras, leader of the anti-austerity Syriza party, said Athens had a “historical obligation” to claim from Germany billions of euros in reparations for the physical and financial destruction committed during Nazi Germany’s occupation of Greece.

Beyond the historical obligation, he said Greece had “a moral obligation to our people, to history, to all European peoples who fought and gave their blood against Nazism,” he said in a keynote address to parliament on Sunday.

READ MORE: Euro hits 11yr low after ‘anti-austerity’ Syriza election win

The Greek leader’s comments have resonated far beyond Athens as they place the issue of his country’s recent massive bailout at the behest of international creditors in a whole new light.

After Nazi forces took control of Greece in 1941, the stage was set for one of the bloodiest confrontations of World War II as Greek resistance fighters put up a fierce struggle to end the occupation.They were powerless, however, to prevent the Third Reich from extracting an interest-free 476 million Reichsmarks loan from the Greek central bank, which devastated the Greek economy.

A 2012 report by the Bundestag, Germany’s lower house of parliament, estimated the value of the loan at US$8.25 billion. Greece, however, puts the value of the loan at €11 billion, the To Vima newspaper reported in January, citing confidential financial documents.

Hi,

President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State John Kerry and Senator John McCain have dishonored the people of the United States by their support of the fascist government in the Ukraine. Any military assistance to the anti-Semitic, anti-worker government in the Ukraine would be an act of provocation towards Russia. Working people do not need a war with Russia which without doubt would be catastrophic to Europe and the United States at the very least. We must not forget that we can all be cremated equally!

That’s why I created a petition to The United States House of Representatives, The United States Senate, and President Barack Obama, which says:

“We oppose sending military support of any kind to the fascist government in the Ukraine!”

Will you sign this petition? Click here:

http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/no-to-war-with-russia?source=c.em.mt&r_by=8638452

Thanks!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAaWvVFERVA&sns=em

AfricaFocus Bulletin
February 5, 2015 (150205)

(Reposted from sources cited below)

Editor’s Note

“Commercial activities are by far the largest contributor to illicit
financial flows (IFFs), followed by organized crime, then public
sector activities. Corrupt practices play a key role in facilitating
these outflows. The sources of IFFs are from within our continent,
and the fundamental responsibility for eliminating the sources rests
with the governments of African States. Therefore, the Panel calls
for the African Union to take leadership in ensuring that Africa
takes the necessary measures to curtail and indeed eliminate all
avenues for IFFs.” – High Level Panel on on Illicit Financial Flows
from Africa, February 2015

For a version of this Bulletin in html format, more suitable for
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The evidence on Africa’s losses from illicit financial flows has
been accumulating and gaining greater prominence in recent years, as
has the wider realization that rich countries as well are losing
billions to evasive tax maneuvers and money laundering by large
corporations and the super-rich. See
http://www.africafocus.org/intro-iff.php for talking points and a
number of earlier reports.

What is new about the latest report is not only that it comes from a
panel appointed officially by the African Union and the Economic
Commission on Africa, and that it has now been adopted officially by
the African Union. It is also that it not only reviews the data, but
also proposes specific steps that can be taken by existing African
government agencies, as well as reforms such as enactments of new
requirements for information disclosure both in Africa and around
the world.

Notably, the same technical mechanisms that have been used to track
funds of drug traffickers and terrorist networks can now be used, if
there is political will, to track monies lost to illicit financial
flows and tax evasion.

The report stresses that the largest portion of such flows are based
in common commercial mechanisms such as mispricing of imports and
exports, which can be checked with improvement of customs and trade
monitoring databases. The report called for a crackdown by customs,
tax, business and anti-corruption authorities and emphasized that
African governments must take the lead, with measures that are
practical and can have meaningful effects.

Civil society organizations such as Tax Justice Network Africa,
Action Aid, and Oxfam took part in the launch of the report. But
they stressed that implementation would be the key issue. With this
report having been adopted by African leaders, there are clear
guidelines for action.

Rich countries are also essential to effective action, which
requires such measures as full disclosure of corporate ownership and
sharing tax information.

This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains excerpts from the foreword
by the Panel chair Thabo Mbeki, and from the first section of
recommendations (on the commercial component).

For a good summary of the report, see the Feb. 2 article in The
Guardian (http://tinyurl.com/plqj8kv).

The full 126-page report is available at
http://allafrica.com/view/group/main/main/id/00035250.html

In a Feb 2 article in the Daily Nation (http://tinyurl.com/ms2sqko),
Charles Onyango-Obbo summed up two important implications of the
report: (1) Stopping the activities that bleed Africa through
illicit flows requires smart states, not muscular police and
soldiers. (2) In turn, it means hiring tech-savvy people, and those
who know numbers and the way the new global economy works.

A very clear article detailing how trade mispricing works and can
be checked, using the case of India, appeared in the Indian Express
on Feb. 3 (http://tinyurl.com/ooksj3x).

For previous AfricaFocus Bulletins  on illicit financial flows and
related issues, visit http://www.africafocus.org/intro-iff.php

++++++++++++++++++++++end editor’s note+++++++++++++++++

Report of the High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from
Africa

Commissioned by the AU/ECA Conference of Ministers of Finance,
Planning and Economic Development

Foreword

The 4th Joint African Union Commission/United Nations Economic
Commission for Africa (AUC/ECA) Conference of African Ministers of
Finance, Planning and Economic Development was held in 2011. This
Conference mandated ECA to establish the High Level Panel on Illicit
Financial Flows from Africa. Underlying this decision was the
determination to ensure Africa’s accelerated and sustained
development, relying as much as possible on its own resources.

The decision was immediately informed by concern that many of our
countries would fail to meet the Millennium Development Goals during
the target period ending in 2015. There was also concern that our
continent had to take all possible measures to ensure respect for
the development priorities it had set itself, as reflected for
instance in the New Partnership for Africa’s Development. Progress
on this agenda could not be guaranteed if Africa remained
overdependent on resources supplied by development partners.

In the light of this analysis, it became clear that Africa was a net
creditor to the rest of the world, even though, despite the inflow
of official development assistance, the continent had suffered and
was continuing to suffer from a crisis of insufficient resources for
development.Very correctly, these considerations led to the decision
to focus on the matter of illicit financial outflows from Africa,
and specifically on the steps that must be taken to radically reduce
these outflows to ensure that these development resources remain
within the continent. The importance of this decision is emphasized
by the fact that our continent is annually losing more than $50
billion through illicit financial outflows.

This Report reflects the work that the High Level Panel on Illicit
Financial Flows has carried out since it was established in February
2012, particularly to:

*  Develop a realistic and accurate assessment of the volumes and
sources of these outflows;

* Gain concrete understanding of how these outflows occur in Africa,
based on case studies of a sample of African countries and;

* Ensure that we make specific recommendations of practical,
realistic, short- to medium-term actions that should be taken both
by Africa and by the rest of the world to effectively confront what
is in fact a global challenge.

It would not have been possible for our Panel to do its work without
the enthusiastic support of all our interlocutors as we worked to
discharge our mandate. I would like to take this opportunity to
convey our sincere and warm thanks to all those for everything they
did to contribute to the success of the work of our Panel.

…

Objectively, it is practically impossible to acquire complete
information about illicit financial flows, precisely because of
their illicit nature, which means that those responsible take
deliberate and systematic steps to hide them. This also means that
ECA and everyone concerned should continue to carry out research on
this matter, including making generally available all new relevant
information that will inevitably emerge.

Despite the challenges of information gathering about illicit
activities, the information available to us has convinced our Panel
that large commercial corporations are by far the biggest culprits
of illicit outflows, followed by organized crime. We are also
convinced that corrupt practices in Africa are facilitating these
outflows, apart from and in addition to the related problem of weak
governance capacity.

All this should be understood within the context of large
corporations having the means to retain the best available
professional legal, accountancy, banking and other expertise to help
them perpetuate their aggressive and illegal activities. Similarly,
organized criminal organizations, especially international drug
dealers, have the funds to corrupt many players, including and
especially in governments, and even to ‘capture’ weak states. All
these factors underline that the critical ingredient in the struggle
to end illicit financial flows is the political will of governments,
not only technical capacity.

Further, illicit financial outflows whose source is Africa end up
somewhere in the rest of the world. Countries that are destinations
for these outflows also have a role in preventing them and in
helping Africa to repatriate illicit funds and prosecute
perpetrators. Thus, even though these financial outflows present
themselves to us Africans as our problem, united global action is
necessary to end them. Such united global action requires that
agreement be reached on the steps to be taken to expedite the
repatriation of the illicitly exported capital. This must include
ensuring that the financial institutions that receive this capital
do not benefit by being allowed to continue to house it during
periods when it might be frozen, pending the completion of the
agreed due processes prior to repatriation.

It also means that concrete steps should be taken to give general
universal application to such best practices as might have developed
anywhere in the world. This includes the relevant actions and
initiatives that have been taken by such institutions as the OECD,
the G8 and G20, the European Parliament and the African Tax
Administration Forum.

Correctly, the United Nations is leading the process to engage the
international community to design the Post-2015 Development Agenda,
the successor programme to the Millennium Development Goals. As was
foreseen in the Millennium Development Goals, giving credibility to
the Post-2015 Development Agenda will require realistic expectations
about the availability of resources to finance this agenda – ”a new
and real commitment to the objective of financing for development.

Our Panel is convinced that Africa’s retention of the capital that
is generated on the continent and should legitimately be retained in
Africa must be an important part of the resources to finance the
Post-2015 Development Agenda.

We do not say this to support the entirely false and self-serving
argument against capital transfers from the rich to the poor regions
of the world, including Africa – a historically proven driver of
equitable global development.

Rather, we are arguing that there exists a very significant and
eminently practical possibility to change the balance between the
volumes of domestic and foreign capital required for meaningful and
sustained African development. The radical reduction of illicit
capital outflows from Africa, short of ending them, is precisely the
outcome Africa and the rest of the world must achieve to produce
this strategically critical new balance.

As a Panel we are convinced that the goals of ending poverty in the
world, reducing inequality within and among nations, and giving
practical effect to the fundamental objective of the right of all to
development remain vital pillars in the historic process to build a
humane, peaceful and prosperous universal human society.

We commend this humble Report to our immediate Principals, the
African Finance, Planning and Economic Development Ministers, all
the other African authorities and the people of Africa, as well as
to the rest of the world, as a contribution to what must be an
honest, serious, concerted and sustained African and global effort
to build a better world for all.

Thabo Mbeki, Chairperson

*************************************************************

Recommendations

The recommendations set out here serve as our humble contribution to
addressing the complex issue of the illicit outflows of capital from
Africa. As we noted in the Foreword, despite the challenges of
gathering information about illicit activities, available
information shows that our continent is losing in excess of $50
billion to $60 billion a year through illicit financial outflows.

Commercial activities are by far the largest contributor to illicit
financial flows (IFFs), followed by organized crime, then public
sector activities. Corrupt practices play a key role in facilitating
these outflows. The sources of IFFs are from within our continent,
and the fundamental responsibility for eliminating the sources rests
with the governments of African States. Therefore, the Panel calls
for the African Union to take leadership in ensuring that Africa
takes the necessary measures to curtail and indeed eliminate all
avenues for IFFs.

Although the sources of IFFs are within our Continent, the
mechanisms for moving IFFs often involve non-African private and
public actors and are sometimes the result of policies and laws
adopted by intergovernmental bodies and governments outside our
Continent. It is therefore necessary for African governments to
engage with these non-African actors to ensure that their practices
do not facilitate the illicit outflow of funds from Africa.

The ultimate goal of these recommendations is to eliminate IFFs from
Africa. Given that the international community will shortly launch
the Post- 2015 Development Agenda, the timing of this Report is
fortunate. The Post- 2015 Development Agenda should reflect the
recommendations contained in this Report. Indeed, the Common African
Position on the Post-2015 Development Agenda already calls for
action against IFFs.

The biggest cross-cutting challenge found through our country case
studies is the lack of appropriate capacity to ensure that illicit
outflows are curtailed. In many cases, this does not entail
acquiring additional resources but better using existing capacities.
Take Nigeria, where capacity exists within the Customs Agency, but
the authority to monitor some exports has been transferred to
another agency.

Given that most measurable IFFs are trade based, actions set forth
in the recommendations below for improving capacity and
accountability to curtail trade-related IFFs should be given
primacy. African States should take primary responsibility for
mobilizing resources for tackling trade- related IFFs (and, indeed,
other types of IFFs) from Africa.

A. The commercial component of illicit flows

1. Trade mispricing

African countries should ensure that they have clear and concise
laws and regulations that make it illegal to intentionally
incorrectly or inaccurately state the price, quantity, quality or
other aspect of trade in goods and services in order to move capital
or profits to another jurisdiction or to manipulate, evade or avoid
any form of taxation, including customs and excise duties.

The first step in revenue collection is to ensure that all
corporations, big and small, are registered for tax purposes. In
addition to existing registration requirements, countries may
consider a provision in the respective acts regulating the
registration of companies or small businesses to the effect that no
registration shall take place without proof of tax registration. In
some countries, one cannot open a business bank account without
proof of registration for tax. To avoid unnecessary delays in the
registration of companies, the relevant agencies must have adequate
capacity to process such registrations. We recommend further that
the databases of the companies’ registration office and the tax
authority be linked.

African States’ customs authorities should use available databases
of information about comparable pricing of world trade in goods to
analyse imports and exports and identify transactions that require
additional scrutiny. States should also begin collecting trade
transaction data and creating databases from that information, which
can then be searched and shared with other States so that a more
robust dataset of local and regional comparables is available.

2. Transfer pricing

The ‘arm’s-length principle’ is currently accepted as the
international standard to combat transfer pricing, but its effective
implementation depends on the availability of comparable pricing
data on goods and services. The Panel calls on national and
multilateral agencies to make fully and freely available, and in a
timely manner, data on pricing of goods and services in
international transactions, according to accepted coding categories.

African countries should establish transfer pricing units as a
matter of extreme urgency. These units should be appropriately
situated in revenue authorities and should be well equipped in
accordance with global best practices. Establishing transfer pricing
units may entail the training of a selection of existing revenue
officers in this specialized area. We have been informed that those
African countries that have established transfer pricing units have
been and are willing to continue training other countries’
officials. In this case, a small investment in training can have a
major positive impact on revenue collection.

African States should require multinational corporations operating
in their countries to provide the transfer pricing units with a
comprehensive report showing their disaggregated financial reporting
on a country-by-country or subsidiary-by-subsidiary basis. African
governments could also consider developing a format for this
reporting that would be acceptable to multiple African revenue
authorities.

3. Base erosion and profit shifting

The practice by which multinational corporations shift profits to
subsidiaries in low-tax or secrecy jurisdictions is one of the
biggest single sources of illicit outflows. In many cases, those
subsidiaries exist on paper only, mostly with one or two employees,
while the bulk of the activities of the company occur in another
country. While we recommend that African countries support the OECD-
led response to this problem, which focuses on improving access to
the information of these multinational corporations, we know that
the challenge is a bit more complex for African countries.

We also recommend that there should be an automatic exchange of tax
information among African countries. Africa must strongly call for
an automatic exchange of tax information globally, subject to
national capacity and to maintaining the confidentiality of price-
sensitive business information.

4. Related recommendations

Transparency of ownership and control of companies, partnerships,
trusts and other legal entities that can hold assets and open bank
accounts is critical to the ability to determine where illicit funds
are moving and who is moving them. African countries should require
that beneficial ownership information is provided when companies are
incorporated or trusts registered; such information is updated
regularly; and such information is placed on the public record.
Beneficial ownership declarations should also be required of all
parties entering into government contracts. False declarations
should result in robust penalties.

Double taxation agreements can contain provisions that are harmful
to domestic resource mobilization and can be used to facilitate
illicit financial outflows. We recommend that African countries
review their current and prospective double taxation conventions,
particularly those in place with jurisdictions that are significant
destinations of IFFs, to ensure that they do not provide
opportunities for abuse. The use of the Model Double Taxation
Agreement developed by the African Tax Administration Forum is
recommended for consideration.

Regional integration arrangements should be used to introduce
accepted standards for tax incentives to prevent harmful competition
in the effort to attract foreign direct investment.

African countries are encouraged to join the African Tax
Administration Forum and to provide it with the necessary support,
including giving it political standing in African regional processes
such as the AU/ECA Conference of Ministers of Finance.

The extractive sector is a primary source of IFFs in Africa, but it
is not the only source of IFFs. African countries and companies
operating in extractive industries in Africa should join voluntary
initiatives like the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.
Africa should also push for mandatory country-by- country and
project-by-project reporting requirements immediately in the
extractive sectors and in the near term across all sectors.

5. Institutional support for these measures

African States should establish or strengthen the independent
institutions and agencies of government responsible for preventing
IFFs. These include (but are not limited to) financial intelligence
units, anti-fraud agencies, customs and border agencies, revenue
agencies, anti-corruption agencies and financial crime agencies. All
such agencies should render regular reports on their activities and
findings to national legislatures.

African States should create methods and mechanisms for information
sharing and coordination among the various institutions and agencies
of government responsible for preventing IFFs, with such
coordination being led by the country’s financial intelligence unit.

Banks and financial institutions have a major role in preventing and
eliminating IFFs. Robust regimes should be put in place for the
supervision of banks and nonbank financial institutions by central
banks and financial supervision agencies. Such regimes must require
mandatory reporting of transactions that may be tainted with illicit
activity.

[See full report for additional recommendations.]

*****************************************************

AfricaFocus Bulletin is an independent electronic publication
providing reposted commentary and analysis on African issues, with a
particular focus on U.S. and international policies. AfricaFocus
Bulletin is edited by William Minter.

AfricaFocus Bulletin can be reached at africafocus@igc.org. Please
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http://www.africafocus.org

Published time: February 02, 2015 11:41
Edited time: February 03, 2015 06:57 

http://rt.com/news/228495-maduro-venezuela-us-coup/

Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro (Reuters/Carlos Garcia Rawlins)

The US is behind the attempted coup in Venezuela – that is the accusation President Nicolas Maduro has leveled amid widespread protests back home. And it’s none other than Vice-president Joe Biden who’s behind the entire operation, Maduro alleges.

This is the first time a direct accusation of this gravity was made in front of thousands of cheering spectators and the world at large, despite an earlier Friday statement, when Maduro struck out at several US federal agencies for allegedly plotting against Venezuela.

“The northern imperial power has entered a dangerous phase of desperation, going to talk to the continent’s governments to announce the overthrow of my government. And I accuse Vice-president Joe Biden of this,” the head of state said, addressing the people at the 198th anniversary of the birth of a Venezuelan hero general Zamora in Cua, Miranda state.

He also questioned US President Barack Obama publically, whether he was “aware of these plans to promote violence and a coup in Venezuela” and “appealed to his consciousness.”

“There are US diplomats in Venezuela contracting military officials to betray their country, looking to influence socialist political leaders, public opinion leaders and entrepreneurs to provoke a coup,” the head of state went on.

READ MORE: Venezuela accuses Kerry of murder and inciting violence

The President addressed the nation on Sunday in order to strengthen its resolve in times of what he called “a bloody coup”, as demonstrators flooded the streets demanding his resignation amid an economic crisis that is hitting the food sector first, just as the voices of thousands of others could be heard cheering him on, as they smiled and waved flags.

But according to Maduro, this is no ordinary crisis. “I appeal to the people and the patriots among the officials who are on high alert, as a bloody coup is underway in Venezuela.”

“The people must be prepared to rescue their democracy, the Constitution and their revolution” at times like these, the head of state warned.

READ MORE: The US is behind the current drop in oil prices – Bolivia’s president

The New York Times pointed out on January 2 that an unnamed official had said Maduro was interested in improving his relationship with Biden, and the Venezuelan leader said after the meet that he “told Vice-president Biden, and have said it 1,000 times in public and in private, we want respectful relations, nothing more.”

But as the price of oil – which accounts for 95 percent of its export earnings – begins to plunge, so do Maduro’s public ratings, which are now at little more than 20 percent, according to local media.

READ MORE: Venezuela plunges into recession with record inflation

With the situation changing, Maduro said that it’s difficult to imagine, despite earlier promises, how to maintain diplomatic relations with the US, in light of its constant attempts to subvert the Venezuelan leadership and sink the country into a crisis.

“They [the opposition] say that the revolution is over, that the people no longer support it. They say they will overthrow the people and the revolutionary government that I chair. But I say to the conspirators – stay out of Venezuela, let us live in peace.”

READ MORE: Venezuela adds new currency market to save ailing economy

Washington and Caracas have been at odds regularly after iconic former leader Hugo Chavez had come to power in 2000. The US had already been accused of trying to undermine the Venezuelan government in 2002, when a coup saw Chavez ousted from office for 47 hours, before order was restored.