Lusaka, Zambia, 15 March 2022 – The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), through its Sub-Regional Office for Southern Africa (SRO-SA), based in Lusaka, Zambia and its Macroeconomics Governance Division (MGD), based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia is collaborating with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) to implement a project titled “Towards an integrated national financing framework (INFF)”, funded by the UN Development Account (UNDA) 13th tranche. Zambia is among the 10 target beneficiary countries of the project along with Burkina Faso in the African region.
The project aims at strengthening capacities in a set of developing countries to address gaps in the costing and planning of their financing needs to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their national development objectives, in addition to mobilizing domestic and external finance within their INFF frameworks. Zambia is currently in the process of preparing its Eight National Development Plan (NDP). In this context, the issue of mobilizing finance to achieve its national development objectives is timely and relevant.
Within the UNDA 13th tranche INFF project, UNECA and UNCTAD co-organized a four-day Capacity Building Workshop on Domestic Resource Mobilization and Illicit Financial Flows in Zambia, from 15th -18th of March 2022 at Neelkanth Sarovar Hotel, Lusaka. The Workshop was organized under the aegis of the Ministry of Finance and National Planning of the Government of Zambia, the focal point ministry for the project.
The objectives of the workshop were to inform key policymakers in Zambia of the Integrated National Financing Framework (INFF) process, highlight the domestic resource mobilization requirements of the country and train policymakers in Zambia on the use of statistical methods to estimate illicit financial flows. The workshop brought together high caliber Government officials, policymakers, civil society organizations, and UN Representatives.
In her opening remarks at the workshop, Ms Eunice G. Kamwendo, Director, ECA Sub-Regional Office for Southern Africa said that Illicit Financial Flows are a huge barrier to the achievement of the SDGs and other national priorities. She cited evidence from the work of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) that shows that illicit financial flows contribute US $ 88.6 billion of capital flight annually from the African Continent.
“By reducing these outflows, Ms Kamwendo added, the African continent can raise the stock of capital available for businesses to build productive capacities and create jobs, which will translate to increases in tax revenues and improve the fiscal space of governments”.
She further mentioned that Zambia and the rest of Africa are expected to benefit from the set-up of INFF frameworks as INFFs are intended to mobilize efforts to increase tax revenues, expand domestic financial markets, create a conducive environment that promotes SDG-aligned private sector investment, tackle illicit financial flows and develop financing instruments to unlock new sources of finance.
In his statement, Mr Trevor Kaunda, Permanent Secretary for Monitoring and Evaluation in the Ministry of Finance and National Planning said the government is currently finalising the 8th national development plan in readiness for approval and launch within this year.
Mr Kaunda says the workshop is critical especially when the country is grappling with reduced fiscal space arising from the debt burden, COVID-19 among others.
He notes that “the workshop is, therefore, timely as it allows us to enhance the country’s efforts to improve domestic resource mobilization towards national development”.
“The need for capacity building in this area is evident through lessons learnt during the implementation of past plans. Therefore, the support from the UNECA will go a long way in narrowing the resource gap in Zambia’s development financing”, Mr Kaunda emphasized.
An overview of the INFF process and the UNDA13th tranche project was made by Ms Bineswaree Bolaky, Economic Affairs Officer at ECA SRO-SA who stated that INFFs are a planning and delivery tool that should be country owned, used to better align development financing to the SDGs and national development priorities as well as unlocking new sources of finance. In his presentation on IFFs, Mr Allan Mukungu, Economic Affairs Officer (ECA HQ) also highlighted how ECA and UNCTAD are jointly piloting methodologies for estimating IFFs in several countries including Zambia.
Ms Isatou Gaye, Chief of the Subregional Initiatives Section of ECA SRO-SA, noted the low levels of non-tax revenue which constitute only 3.9 percent of total fiscal revenues in Zambia and urged for greater efforts to o diversify fiscal revenues. Ms. Gaye’s remarks while moderating a session where an overview of the 8th NDP was presented by Mr. Lee Chileshe of the Ministry of Finance and National Planning. Similar sentiments were made by Mrs. Silvia Mwamba from the Zambia Institute for Policy Analysis and Research (ZIPAR) emphasizing the urgent need to increase and expand sources of financing in the country.
The rest of the workshop, focused on training policy makers on the use of statistical methods to estimate IFFs, led by an UNCTAD team composed of Mr. Bojan Nastav, Ms. Carlotta Schuster and Ms. Amandine Rushenguziminega.
Mr. Bedson Nyoni
Senior Information Management Assistant
Economic Commission for Africa Office for Southern Africa (ECA-SA)
Email: nyonib@un.org
Ms. Catherine Huissoud
The Communication Head
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
Email: catherine.huissoud@unctad.org
Ms. Bineswaree Bolaky
Economic Affairs Officer
Sub-Regional Initiatives Section
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
Sub Regional Office for Southern Africa
Lusaka, Zambia
E-mail: bineswaree.bolaky@un.org