About Us
We believe that returning back stolen assets will enable countries on the global South, particularly in Africa to address inequality, reduce poverty, innovate and build sustainable partnerships.
About the African Center for Governance, Asset Recovery and Sustainable Development.
The African Center for Governance, Asset Recovery and Sustainable Development (otherwise known as “the African Center”) is an independent, civil society organization conducting research, development of policies and laws, as well as capacity building on anti-corruption, governance, anti-money laundering, combating of financing of terrorism, and management of returned assets.
The African Center works with governments, international organizations, and non-governmental organizations to promote good governance, and rule of law.
We work around the world to foster national and international cooperation in the recovery and return of proceeds of corruption and illicit finance back to countries of origin in line with Chapter V of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) and target 16.4 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The African Center has three thematic objectives

The African Center will take a deliberate approach to connect governance to the people through the promotion of the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by the governments of African countries while working closely with relevant national, regional, and international organizations
Thematic Objective 1
Improving Governance and Accountability Systems of Government
The work of the African Center on Governance will be underpinned by the promotion of rule of law, promotion of sustainable justice sector institutions and sustainable development to address inequality and reduce corruption.
Our Good Governance approach:
Our approach includes engagement with justice sector institutions, the parliament, and the executive arms of government on issues related to rule of law, peace and security, anti-corruption, anti-money laundering, combatting of financing of terrorism, gender equality and building of partnerships across different sectors. This approach will include capacity building, development of national strategies and integrity pillars, and development of policy briefs, legal and regulatory frameworks in line with international standards and conventions.
The African Center will take a deliberate approach to connect governance to the people through the promotion of the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by the governments of African countries while working closely with relevant national, regional, and international organizations. The Center will also use the World Bank Indicators of Governance, namely Voice and Accountability, Regulatory Quality, Rule of Law, Control of Corruption, Political Stability/Absence of Violence/Terrorism and Government Effectiveness as tools to conduct quantitative and qualitative analysis of governance situations in African countries. Our Governance approach will embed women’s access to quality education, access to justice and economic empowerment tools as a cross-cutting issue and will rely on findings from womenconnect initiatives as a basis to change social norms, create economic opportunities, design technologies that address women needs, and develop community support for women.
World Bank Governance Indicators - https://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/
USAID Women Connect Challenge - https://www.womenconnectchallenge.org/
Thematic Objective 2
The Recovery and Return of Stolen Assets
Under the Asset Recovery theme, the African Center will work with national, regional, and international organizations to design clear and comprehensive legal frameworks on the recovery of proceeds of all forms of crime, and transparent management of the returned assets for the benefit of the victims of these crimes.
Our Approach:
The African Center will undertake an analysis of national authorities’ compliance with United Nations Convention Against Corruption, Financial Action Task Force Recommendations, and the Global Forum on Asset Recovery (GFAR) Principles. The study will review Reports submitted by State Parties at the Conference of State Parties in line with Article 63 of UNCAC to determine how they have complied with the Convention and what measures need to be put in place for effective implementation as well as transparent management of recovered and returned assets.
The African Center will also provide relevant training embedded within the rule of law and human rights principles for law enforcement officials, prosecutors, and judges. Some of the capacity building programmes will focus on
- Financial Intelligence Gathering
- Tracing, Seizing and Freezing of stolen assets, funds, or properties
- International Cooperation in the provision of mutual legal assistance requests
- Management of International Recovered Assets in line with Sustainable Development Goals
- Management of Assets Recovered Domestically
- Management and Compensation of Victims of Corruption
The Center will build on the link between return of stolen assets and sustainable development and work with countries of the South to advocate for expedited mechanisms to return stolen assets that can be used for the benefit of their citizens.

- Camden Asset Recovery Interagency Network available at https://www.carin.network/
- Asset Recovery Interagency Network - https://www.unodc.org/rpanc/en/asset-recovery-interagency-network-of-west-and-central-asia-arin-wca.html
- Civil Asset Forum for Asset Recovery (CiFAR) - https://cifar.eu/
- International Center for Asset Recovery (ICAR – Basel Institute on Governance ) - https://baselgovernance.org/asset-recovery
- Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative (StAR) Global Forum on Asset Recovery - https://star.worldbank.org/case-study/global-forum-asset-recovery-gfar
- United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime – https://www.unodc.org/
- Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative (StAR) - https://star.worldbank.org/
- Global Forum on Asset Recovery (GFAR) Principles - https://star.worldbank.org/about-us/global-forum-asset-recovery-gfar
- Lausanne Guideline on Effective Asset Recovery - https://guidelines.assetrecovery.org/guidelines.
Thematic Objective 3
The Implementation of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
The Center is poised to work with other development partners and civil society organizations to ensure the effective implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN/SDGs). However, we will focus on promoting the implementation of SDG 16
We aim to promote the objectives of Goal 16 which are:
To promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development
, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.We will work on the prevention of illicit financial flows, the recovery of stolen assets and the fight against organized crimes in all forms.