Click the star to add/remove an item to/from your individual schedule.
You need to be logged in to avail of this functionality,
and to see the links to virtual rooms.
Log in
Accepted Paper:
Is Aid to Domestic Revenue Mobilization Supporting Tax Fairness and Gender Justice?
Marc Cohen
(Oxfam America)
Nathan Coplin
(Oxfam)
Paper short abstract:
Donors have increased aid to domestic revenue mobilization (DRM). However, such aid tends to emphasize efficiency over tax fairness, progressivity, and gender equality. It frequently fails to link revenues to poverty-reducing public expenditures and often is poorly linked to country ownership.
Paper long abstract:
The 2015 Addis Ababa Action Agenda recognized that expected official development assistance will not fully finance achieving the sustainable development goals. It identifies domestic revenue mobilization (DRM) in low- and middle-income countries as crucial for financing development, and donors have increased aid to DRM. However, they have fallen far short of pledges to double such aid.
This paper synthesizes findings from research in Bangladesh, Haiti, Mali, and Uganda, examining aid from the EU, France, the UK, the US, and the World Bank. Across countries and programs, donors tend to focus on efficiency, administrative ease, and technical improvements to tax collection, e.g., supporting electronic payment systems and enhancing value added taxes (VAT). This emphasis neglects tax fairness, progressivity, and gender equality. Too often, aid to DRM fails to link revenues to poverty-reducing public expenditures, such as health, education, and social protection. The technocratic approach generally avoids addressing exemptions and evasion, and donor self-interest may come into play, as in exemption of extractive industry earnings. Aid to DRM is frequently gender blind, but support for VAT may have disproportionately negative effects on women, who account for the majority of micro- and small-scale entrepreneurs in some countries.
The link to country ownership may be weak. Donors do not engage local project implementers, and inconsistently use country systems. Aid to DRM may be supply-driven, as donors pursue their favored approaches, rather than aligning with national plans and priorities. Many projects avoid strengthening accountability mechanisms, such as audit bodies, parliamentary oversight, and civil-society watchdogs.
Click the star to add/remove an item to/from your individual schedule.
You need to be logged in to avail of this functionality, and to see the links to virtual rooms. Log in
Accepted Paper:
Marc Cohen (Oxfam America) Nathan Coplin (Oxfam)
Paper short abstract:
Paper long abstract:
The 2015 Addis Ababa Action Agenda recognized that expected official development assistance will not fully finance achieving the sustainable development goals. It identifies domestic revenue mobilization (DRM) in low- and middle-income countries as crucial for financing development, and donors have increased aid to DRM. However, they have fallen far short of pledges to double such aid.
This paper synthesizes findings from research in Bangladesh, Haiti, Mali, and Uganda, examining aid from the EU, France, the UK, the US, and the World Bank. Across countries and programs, donors tend to focus on efficiency, administrative ease, and technical improvements to tax collection, e.g., supporting electronic payment systems and enhancing value added taxes (VAT). This emphasis neglects tax fairness, progressivity, and gender equality. Too often, aid to DRM fails to link revenues to poverty-reducing public expenditures, such as health, education, and social protection. The technocratic approach generally avoids addressing exemptions and evasion, and donor self-interest may come into play, as in exemption of extractive industry earnings. Aid to DRM is frequently gender blind, but support for VAT may have disproportionately negative effects on women, who account for the majority of micro- and small-scale entrepreneurs in some countries.
The link to country ownership may be weak. Donors do not engage local project implementers, and inconsistently use country systems. Aid to DRM may be supply-driven, as donors pursue their favored approaches, rather than aligning with national plans and priorities. Many projects avoid strengthening accountability mechanisms, such as audit bodies, parliamentary oversight, and civil-society watchdogs.
Aid provision and donors’ interests in an urbanising and mobile world increasingly affected by climate change
Session 1 Thursday 7 July, 2022, -