How Asset Recovery Promotes Transparency and Good Governance in Africa
Since 2022, CiFAR has been supporting civil society organizations across Africa to champion a new initiative under the Common African Position on Asset Recovery (CAPAR). The continent-wide CAPAR CSO network is driving transformative efforts to recover stolen assets, strengthen good governance, and ensure transparency in Africa, grounded in CAPAR’s four key pillars: (1) detection and identification of stolen assets, (2) recovery and return of assets, (3) management of recovered assets, and (4) strengthening cooperation and partnerships.
What’s the problem?
With billions of dollars lost in illicit financial flows in Africa every year, asset recovery is fundamental to ensure justice for victims of corruption and contribute to sustainable development. Notwithstanding growing efforts, the recovery of assets in African countries still often lacks transparency, accountability and the involvement of citizens.
And the solution?
The African Union, through the CAPAR, set an ambitious agenda to make stolen asset recovery and the fight against illicit financial flows stronger and more transparent. The full implementation of these commitments is a milestone in the recovery of ill-gotten assets in the continent. The CAPAR CSO Network is uniquely positioned to promote greater asset recovery efforts across AU member states and more broadly strengthen good governance across the continent.
The Network capitalizes on the opportunities presented by CAPAR forward through:
- Raising awareness about CAPAR’s scope, commitments, and benefits among citizens, civil society, and governments.
- Fostering collaboration among CSOs through knowledge exchange and joint action for stronger CAPAR engagement.
- Monitoring implementation of CAPAR, sharing best practices, tracking progress, and preparing shadow reports on CAPAR implementation.
- Creating tools for tracking CAPAR implementation, analyzing country-specific data, and conducting comparative assessments.
- Advocating on key recommendations for reform targeting lawmakers at the regional and national level to enhance CAPAR enforcement.
- Amplifying the voice of civil society and foster regional cooperation on CAPAR initiatives.
Among other initiatives, the CSO Network, supported by CiFAR and Transparency International, developed an assessment tool to monitor the national implementation of CAPAR across Africa and under each of these four pillars.
The tool was designed to help civil society organizations monitor the progress on CAPAR’s implementation through a ‘traffic light’ system. By evaluating and measuring these indicators, civil society is able to assess the effectiveness and transparency of a country’s asset recovery framework.
Outcomes of the first phase
In its first phase, the CAPAR CSO network developed and launched six country assessments on CAPAR implementation in 2023 and 2024, including Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Kenya, Morocco, Madagascar, and Nigeria.
Organization overview
CiFAR – Civil Forum for Asset Recovery is a civil society organization based in Berlin and Nairobi combating cross-border corruption and advocating for the transparent, participatory and accountable recovery of stolen assets. It works to strengthen civil society’s role in asset recovery by providing technical support, promoting knowledge sharing, and encouraging international cooperation. CiFAR engages in capacity-building, policy, advocacy, and monitoring of asset recovery efforts to ensure the return of misappropriated funds benefits affected communities.