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JCAM 2021 21 Annual Review For Zimbabwe, as well as for the remainder of Africa, COVID-19 further revealed the devastating effect that IFFs have had on the ability of resource-strapped governments to weather the storm. The significant financial leakage from IFFs hamper the ability of Zimbabwe and other African states to provide the critical public health services necessary to respond to the pandemic, or to provide social services in any number of other areas. In many cases, alongside the ongoing sovereign debt crisis, IFFs combined Participants listening keenly to the IFF with COVID-19 have placed African governments in the presentation by the JENA team precarious position of having to choose between satisfying © JENA the demands of foreign creditors or feeding, housing, and caring for the health of their populations. Therefore, addressing IFFs cannot wait until the end of the pandemic, a This is in line with work that JENA has done throughout the point well-taken by the Zimbabwean MPs. pandemic, answering Pope Francis’s call to imagine a post-COVID future based on principles of human fraternity, solidarity, and care for creation as outlined in his encyclicals Laudato Si’ and Fratelli Tutti. In fact, over the last year, JENA has been engaged with the Vatican’s COVID-19 Commission, actively bringing an African perspective and voice to this broader work of the Church. Our work with the Zimbabwe Parliament complements that mission, encouraging multilateral approaches to debt and development in Africa. As Pope Francis reminds us, “today’s Fr. Charles Chilufya, SJ, addressing the Zimbabwean problems call for a vision capable of taking into account members of Parliament, during an IFF workshop every aspect of the global crisis.” Those have been JENA’s © JENA marching orders for the last year and inspire the work we plan for 2022 and beyond. Over the course of the day, Fr. Chilufya and myself provided the MPs with a comprehensive overview of the problem of IFFs, highlighting those areas where African governments are particularly challenged. We highlighted the issues of transparency and good governance, pointing out that these are areas where the MPs can move quickly to enact new legislation and make policies that foster better tax policies and revenue collection in Zimbabwe. MPs were engaged throughout the entire day, actively making interventions, Fratelli Tutti is the third encyclical of Pope Francis, and posing questions. They encouraged JENA to return and subtitled "on fraternity and social friendship" expand their presentation to include other areas © www.cmmbrothers.org concerning Zimbabwe in the global financial order.

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