The ICTD will hold a special one-day workshop, on the practicalities of property taxes in Africa.

The roundtable discussion will take place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Saturday, February 13 2016, from 8.00am to 5.00pm, after the conclusion of the 5th Annual Centre Meeting, that will be held at the same venue.

Recent years have witnessed rapidly mounting interest in local government property taxation in Africa. This has been motivated by a conviction that property taxes may be the most viable, efficient and progressive means of raising local government revenue, and a belief that property taxes could be an entry point to state-building and strengthening state-society accountability.

However, despite widespread enthusiasm progress in strengthening property tax collection has been challenging, and difficult to sustain.  As importantly, academic research has remained comparatively limited, with many experiences limited to practitioners and policy makers. 

The one-day meeting will convene a roundtable discussion of a series of broad, and critical topics related to property taxation in Africa, including:

– Approaches to property valuation in limited capacity environments,

– Approaches to information technology for property tax collection,

– Confronting political barriers to effective property taxation,

– Collaboration between central and local governments,

– Linking land titling and property taxation.

The goal is to share experiences and insights, which will become the foundation for an ICTD summary paper on the topic, and convening the meeting will be ICTD Director, Dr. Wilson Prichard.

Find the agenda here

Image credit: Ninara Flick (CC BY-SA 2.0)