Abstract

Inter-agency cooperation is made possible by overcoming legal, operational and political barriers, and success can be measured in the manner in which agencies decide to work together. Once legal barriers to cooperation have been removed, key implementation questions arise for participating agencies. Often these relate to overcoming operational and cultural barriers. By adopting a qualitative literature-review and policy-analysis methodology relying on academic literature, international organisation reports, legal-policy documents and selected African case examples, cultural, operational and political barriers to inter-agency cooperation in countering illicit financial f lows are identified. The analysis is used to develop a risk-assessment framework for improving inter-agency cooperation to address IFFs through a whole-of-government approach. The article provides a conceptual and normative approach to improved inter-agency cooperation using various mechanisms such as risk assessments, leadership, trust-building, governance structures, and institutional and policy reforms. The article offers clear policy recommendations and suggestions for implementation at operational and policy level.