Following the Money: Illicit Financial Flows and Sustainable Development Goal 16.4

Sustainable development and the enhancement of justice and security globally are predicated on theexistence of sufficient and appropriately deployed assets. Mindful of this, and of the misuse of bothpublic and private wealth, UN Sustainable Development Goal 16.4 (SDG 16.4) seeks to“...significantly reduce illicit financial … flows.” This chapter critiques how this aim of SDG 16.4 hasbeen operationalised. We argue that the choice and placement of the term “illicit” is crucial: it canrelate to the finances, the flows, or both, as well as to the people involved, as facilitators orprotagonists, and is expansive enough to encompass criminal, unlawful, and ostensibly legal butillegitimate or harmful assets, acts, and actors. Moreover, this chapter explores why the movement ofassets is significant, within and between jurisdictions, and how these transfers and transactionsimpact on sustainable development and can worsen inequalities. Our attention is on theconceptualisation, measurement and operationalisation of IFFs in particular and the correspondingimplications for available policy responses in the form of situational interventions as a more plausibleroute to understanding and reducing IFFs in the context of promoting SDG16.4