Illicit financial flows, drivers of poverty and vulnerability: a sustainable development quagmire

Lyla Latif is a Kenyan qualified lawyer and legislative draftsperson. Her legal practice is focused around corporate (re)structuring, negotiating contracts, drafting of asset backed securities and investment agreements for Kenyan based entities and subsidiaries of multinational corporations. She litigates around legal challenges arising out of those practice areas. She has worked on various high-profile projects, including drafting Kenya's land laws - a complete overhaul of colonial land laws - and writing amendments to various laws for the Kenyan government. Outside of practice, Lyla provides consultancy work to international organisations and NGOs on domestic revenue mobilisation, the taxation of digital business models and curbing illicit financial flows. She has taught at the University of Nairobi, Cardiff University and University of Warwick in the UK. She is the chair and research lead of the Committee on Fiscal Studies- an academic think tank on fiscal systems and redistribution. She is an appointed member of the Tax Law Committee of the East Africa Law Society, where she has been instrumental in pioneering tax law reforms and harmonisation of tax for purposes of regional integration. As a non-executive director of the Tax Justice Network and an advisory board member of the International Lawyers Project, Lyla is passionate about supporting the movement for tax justice in international tax rule-making and advancing the entrenchment of the rule of law and human rights as part of governance. In September 2023, Lyla was appointed by the Cabinet Secretary in charge of the Ministry of Information, Communication and Digital Economy to the inaugural Taskforce working group on Emerging Technologies and Data Governance with the mandate to develop the vision, policies and legal framework for propelling Kenya as Africa's digital hub. Research She draws on interdisciplinary knowledge to address issues such as criminal aspects of illicit financial flows, tech tax, power asymmetries in tax norms/rules negotiations, and progressive tax system designing. Part of her research objective is to explore incorporating the Islamic wealth tax in fiscal systems to finance socio-economic improvement, especially accessible and affordable healthcare, and takes a heterodox critique to mainstream colonial-influenced fiscal regimes. Awards She received the Vice Chancellor's Scholarship for Research Excellence from Cardiff University to study how the norms of independent fiscal systems can strengthen the progressive achievement of the right to health (Zakat and SDG 3). Membership She is a member of the Africa Knowledge Network constituted by the UN Office of the Special Adviser on Africa, Law and Development Research Network, American Political Science Association, UNESCO Inclusive Policy Lab, Young Scholars Initiative (UNCTAD), and is a certified Associate Fellow with Advance HE (British professional recognition for university teachers).

Professor Olabisi D. Akinkugbe is an Associate Professor & Purdy Crawford Chair in Business Law at the Schulich School of Law Dalhousie University.