ANEEJ SPEAKS AT UNODC SPECIAL EVENT ON ILLICIT FINANCIAL FLOWS, IFF,…IN VIENNA
Background:
Consequent upon request from Olga Amestitova, Rule-of-Law Expert for the EU and GIZ, ANEEJ executive director the Rev David Ugolor has submitted his bio preparatory to his speech at the UN CoSP 7 side event.
Official side events are a platform for admitted observer organizations, which have limited speaking opportunities in the formal negotiations, to engage with Parties and other participants for knowledge sharing, capacity building, networking and exploring actionable options for meeting the climate challenge. UN agencies, admitted observer organizations and those Parties that partner with observers present their work or foster discussions on key issues, often engaging the audience in a Q&A session. Side events are 90 minutes in duration.
Theme of the special event is IFF in developing countries: stolen assets and the role of the media and civil society, organized by the GIZ, Germany. The Rev David Ugolor will be speaking on the impact of the Panama Papers Leak and the Paradise Report on developing countries, together with the role of civil societies and media. Coming just before last year’s London anti-corruption Summit, did the Panama Papers Leak actually help to shore up the political will of governments to fight corruption? Did the revelations in the Panama and Paradise Leaks spur any implementation of anti-corruption commitments.
Highlights of the Special Session include the following:
Thursday, 9 November 2017
9.00-10.30
Conference Room M3
9.00-10.30
Conference Room M6
9.00-13.30
Conference Room M7
9.00-10.30
Press Room
13.30–15.00
Conference Room M3
13.30–15.00
Conference Room M6
Promoting integrity in State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs): trends and challenges
14.00-15.30
Conference Room M7
Economic crimes and corruption in cyberspace
15.30-17.00
Conference Room M3
Fighting corruption in cities: identifying risks and reacting on time, the role of local governments
15.30-17.00
Conference Room M6
Prevention and integrity in public administration
16.00-17.30
Conference Room M7
IFF in developing countries: stolen assets and the role of the media and civil society
Illicit financial flows harm developing countries by undermining their efforts to mobilize urgently needed domestic resources for investments in infrastructure, health and education systems. The Panama and Paradise Papers showed how fostering civil society and investigative journalism can substantially contribute to detecting different types and channels of illicit financial flows and stolen assets. One and a half years after the publication of the Panama Papers, the following questions arise: What was the impact of the Panama Papers on developing countries and their anticorruption commitments? How can the voices of investigative journalists from developing countries be strengthened? How can CSOs contribute to asset recovery?
Lindy Muzila,
Corruption and Economic Crime Branch,
UNODC,
lindy.muzila@unodc.org
15.30-17.30
Press Room
Corruption risk management: organizational and sectoral aspects
The Rev Ugolor bio read at the session on IFF is here:
The Rev David Ugolor is one of the leading Nigerian anti-corruption and environmental justice activist based in Nigeria withover two decades experience in promoting social justice in Nigeria and internationally. Rev. David Ugolor, is an ordain Minister of the New Apostolic Church and the Executive Director of Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice(ANEEJ) which is based in Abuja, Nigeria promoting research, Campaign, Policy Advocacy and training on governance and corruption, environmental justice and International Financial Institution (IFIs) policies in West Africa region. He is also the Convener of several national and International civil society platform which includes, the Nigerian Civil Society Network on Stolen Assets (NNSA), Publish What You Pay Nigeria Campaign, Ecowas Network on Debt and Development (ECOWAS), Jubilee 2000 Nigeria Campaign and Niger-Delta Budget and Transparency Network.
David Ugolor initiated the Civil Society action on the Panama Paper Leak Campaign in Nigeria and he worked closely with several civil society organisations and media to put pressure on the Nigerian Government and anti-corruption agencies to investigate and prosecute all these mentioned in the Panama Paper Leak in Nigeria. As the Executive Director of ANEEJ, David Ugolor initiated several anti-corruption projects which include the innovative Civil Society Advocacy to Support Anti-Corruption in Nigeria(CASAN) with support from the European Union(EU), Federal Government of Nigeria and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and transparency in the extractive sector through advocacy for the rigorous implementation of the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative(EITI) and the civil society initiative, Publish What You Pay Nigeria Campaign.
David Ugolor also provided leadership in convening the first global civil society initiative in monitoring recovered stolen assets of former military Nigerian Head of State, Gen. Sanni Abacha from Switzerland. The initiative led to the publication of civil society report titled: Shadow Report on Abacha Loot which graphically document the lack of transparency and accountability in the management of recovered stolen assets to Nigeria from Switzerland in 2004/5. Both Switzerland Government and World Bank provided support to the monitoring.
David Ugolor also had training as an anti-corruption expert from the University of Sussex’s Centre for the Study of Corruption and with several institutions within and outside Nigeria. He has participated both locally and internationally in several conferences, workshop and training as a resource person on corruption, money laundering, asset recovery and tax campaign at the G7/8 Summit, World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings, United Nations and participated in the UNCAC/UN Financing for Development process.
He recently convened the Pre-Global Forum on Asset Recovery(GFAR) in Nigeria with participants drawn from the US, the UK and Switzerland representatives, UNODC, civil society, media and the Federal Government of Nigeria.
Update: Below are photos of Rev Ugolor’s presentation at the Special Session
Other ANEEJ events at the UNODC, Vienna, November 2017
