UN’s report aims to help countries meet SDGs

Final FACTI report published on February 25th

A new United Nations report that aims to contribute towards efforts to reach its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 has been published.

The UN’s High-Level Panel on International Financial Accountability, Transparency (FACTI), which was launched in March last year, published its interim report in September. This highlighted the vulnerabilities and impediments present in international systems related to financial accountability, transparency and integrity issues.

This interim report also found that while international systems can help prevent the drain of resources from development, they lack co-ordination, leaving gaps, overlap and even conflict with each other.

However, the final FACTI report – which took in the views of UN member states, international organisations, experts, business and civil society – provides evidence-based recommendations, building on previous successes and the ongoing work of existing mechanisms.

Furthermore, the report identifies priority actions to address challenges for tax cooperation, anti-corruption, and anti-money laundering.

Reaching the SDGs has become more challenging by the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic as resources are shifted towards tackling the social and economic impact of the coronavirus.

This is something that the panel was launched to address, exploring further action in areas such as financial and beneficial ownership transparency, tax matters, bribery and corruption, money laundering, confiscation and disposal of the proceeds of crime, and the recovery and return of stolen assets.

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