Program
The TaxCapDev network
Events
Domestic revenue mobilisation (DRM) is crucial for a government’s ability to make investments that foster social and economic development and is an integral part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Taxation also plays a crucial role in state building by providing the resources needed to fund core state activities as well as constituting the foundation of a social contract between citizens and the state.
How to improve taxation and prevent illicit capital flows are questions of great importance as the answers can shape the policies needed to spur sustainable growth. If this is to happen, knowledge sharing, discussions, and interactions between different types of stakeholders are needed.
The purpose of the TaxCapDev network is to facilitate such interaction by bringing together researchers, policymakers and civil society working on issues related to taxation and capital flows in developing countries, with a particular focus on Sub-Saharan Africa.
Through the organisation of seminars, pod-casts and publishing condensed and accessible research briefs and blog posts, the network aims to facilitate discussions and exchange of experiences, with the goal of creating and sharing knowledge to strengthen DRM in developing countries and contribute to the shaping of new international research agendas.
Coordinating institutions and leadership
Recent publications
Fjeldstad & Therkildsen (2020) Implications of the Covid-19 pandemic for revenue generation in poor African countries. DIIS Working Paper - Implications of the Covid-19 pandemic - Pdf
The pandemic talks
The pandemic talks are the TaxCapDev-network's film series about the financial and tax consequences of COVID-19. Her you meet researchers from Norway and Africa.
Episode 1: Kenya
Episode 2: Nigeria
Episode 3: Senegal
The Norwegian magazine Bistandsaktuelt, covering aid and international development, wrote about The pandemic talks in january 2021: Read the Norwegian article here.
Contact information:
Research assistant for the SkattJakt/TaxCapDev network is Viljar Haavik.
Articles
Tax for Development Webinar Series Presenting the TaxCapDev-Network
Taxation is the key to state-building and the pathway out of fragility. An important theme forming the basis for the TaxCapDev-network.
Did British colonial rule in Africa foster a legacy of corruption among local elites?
The empowerment of chiefs during colonial rule fostered a legacy of corruption more potent than the formal legal system left behind by the colonisers.
Corruption in customs: Time for a new approach
Customs are often perceived as one of the most corrupt institutions in developing countries. Though difficult and complex, fighting corruption in customs is possible but requires an approach that is less centered on transposition of norms and practices from developed countries.
Tax for Development Webinar Series
A new webinar series featuring ongoing research and initiatives to strengthen domestic revenue mobilisation in developing countries, with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa.
Africa, Tax and the Digital Economy
Are the giant tech companies paying their fair share of taxes? Challenges facing African countries in the digital economy.
Tax and fragile states: Challenges for Norwegian development assistance
States need revenue to function and an efficient tax system plays an important role. Can Norwegian development assistance contribute to this?
Information worth killing for
What is the role of investigative journalism in unveiling financial secrecy?
Is taxation the new politics of development?
According to scholars in the field of development studies, taxation might be the missing piece to the puzzle of peace- and state-building.
ANALYSIS: Kurdish State-building and the Struggle for Natural Resources in Iraq
What role do taxation and natural resource management have in Kurdish state-building?
Transboundary collaboration on conservation and natural resources in East Africa
How can transboundary collaboration on conservation and the management of natural resources transform a zone of war into more peaceful coexistence? The case of Uganda-Rwanda-DR Congo holds some promise.
Tax is the new gender issue
Increasing attention has been given to the way tax regimes affect women’s lives. Not only is capital flight now considered in a human rights perspective, taxation policies are also becoming relevant for gender equality issues and women’s rights.
BOOK: Taxing Africa: Coercion, Reform and Development
New book on Taxation in Africa by Mick Moore (ICTD), Wilson Prichard (ICTD) and Odd-Helge Fjeldstad (CMI).
The challenges of illicit economies and financial flows
– Illicit economies pitch the advantages of borderless transport, communications and financial flows against legal systems that remain bound by the confines of the Westphalian nation state. What to do?
REPORT: Building tax systems in fragile states
New report from the TaxCapDev network recommends nine entry points for Norwegian support to taxation in fragile states.
Book launch: Perspectives on international taxation and capital flight from Africa
- How does the international tax system affect domestic revenue systems in Africa? New book from TaxCapDev Network launched in Norway
New book: Perspectives on international taxation and capital flight from Africa
New book from the TaxCapDev-network.
The challenge of taxation in African countries
Tax is the key to development, but African countries are facing several domestic as well as international challenges. What may be the solutions? This was the main question discussed among leading researchers at the plenary session in Bergen in August.
Global tax justice at crossroads
In a world of Trump and Brexit – who makes international tax policy?
How to stop illicit financial flows
Tax evasion and terror financing are among the issues that make up illicit financial flows.
“Survival of the Richest”
New report evaluates Norway’s effort to curtail tax evasion: acceptable work in some areas, but completely fails in the field of tax treaties. – Norwegian tax treaties are directly harmful to developing countries, according to the report from Eurodad.
New Tax Haven in Nairobi?
Will the establishment of the new International Financial Centre in Nairobi (NIFC) be the key to the development of Kenya’s economy, or will it turn out to be just another tax haven?
Developing countries are worlds net creditors
Developing countries have effectively served as net-creditors to the rest of the world with tax havens playing a major role in the flight of unrecorded capital, according to a new report from research project in the SkattJakt -network.
Lifting the Veil of Secrecy - Tax Havens and Developing countries
Tax havens and developing countries – How do we curtail the increasing illicit financial flow from developing countries and which consequences do we see? Leading researchers and experts met in Bergen 21-22 November to discuss and present state-of-the-art research.
New publications
Building tax systems in fragile states. Challenges, achievements and policy recommendations
This report systematises and analyses existing knowledge on taxation in fragile states. Efforts to support domestic revenue mobilisation in conflict situations require a different approach and other means than in the more stable developing countries. On that basis, the study discusses possible entry points for Norwegian support to domestic revenue mobilisation in ways that may contribute to strengthen state-building and improve government legitimacy. Complexity, limited experience and security concerns suggest that one should be cautious to adopt bilateral technical assistance programmes of the kind implemented in other developing countries. Instead, the study argues in favour of engagement via multilateral institutions, including multi-donor trust funds and other forms of pooled resources. The report recommends nine entry points for Norwegian support to taxation in fragile states: 1. Do no harm 2. Safeguard donor coordination, but ensure a certain humility 3. Support customs administration 4. Capacitate management and taxation of natural resources 5. Support the United Nations Tax Committee 6. Improve taxpayer-tax administration relations 7. Remember the sub-national tax system 8. Support civil based organisations 9. Develop research capacity
Global wealth chains in the international political economy
This work is funded by the ‘Systems of Tax Evasion and Laundering: Locating Global Wealth Chains in the International Political Economy’(STEAL 2012-15) project funded by the TaxCapDev program under the Research Council of Norway (#212210/H30), and based at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs.
Projects
Systems of Tax Evasion and Laundering (STEAL)
The project seeks to identify Global Wealth Chains that are the articulation of organized activities between individuals or international entities, developed countries, developing countries, and tax h...
Follow the money: the role of cross-border networks in natural resource extraction, stolen assets recovery, and tax havens and the regulation of cross-border capital flows from extractive industry in East Africa (FOLLOW)
The project will examine the formal and informal regulation of cross border flows of natural resource wealth, with a particular emphasis on the crossborder networks that are at the heart of much of th...