This brief illustrates how various challenges associated with centralized systems of property tax administration are mitigated in Benin. In Benin, reform efforts have benefited from alignment with national priorities — particularly domestic resource mobilization and land tenure policy — as well as aid conditionality and the political configuration. Strong collaboration between the national revenue authority and local governments, underpinned by clear regulations, local bargaining power, and institutionalized dialogue, has reduced the typical incentive misalignments of centralized systems. Within the central tax administration, deconcentrated tax agency offices have served as effective coordination hubs, balancing flexibility with oversight, while the concentration of responsibilities within local tax offices has fostered close collaboration between the property identification and tax collection units. The brief highlights potential avenues of reform for other countries with similarly centralized systems.
Dr Camille Barras is the Policy Lead for the Local Government Revenue Initiative (LoGRI). Her areas of work and interest encompass public governance and administration, subnational governance, intergovernmental relations and state-society relations – and their connection with taxation. She is also interested in questions related to the effectiveness and evolution of international development as a field, in evidence generation and uptake as well as in research methods (quantitative, mixed, evaluation). She completed, in 2023, a PhD at the University of Cambridge, investigating the effects of decentralization on political attitudes and behaviours, and holds academic qualifications in political science, public policy and law. Previously, she worked during seven years at the intersection of practice and research, mainly in the international development sector across a variety of organizations and projects in West/North Africa, South/East Asia and Europe. Among others, she worked for a local governance project at UNDP, was a project manager for impact evaluations at the Center for Evaluation and Development and consulted for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.
Marie-Reine is a Research Officer at the Local Government Revenue Initiative, where she focuses on property taxation reforms in francophone African countries such as Benin, Ivory Coast, and Senegal. She holds a Master’s of Global Affairs from the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, specializing in Development and Human Rights, and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from the University of British Columbia. Marie-Reine has a strong academic and professional background in equitable and inclusive governance in sub-Saharan Africa, with experience in qualitative research, stakeholder engagement, and project management.
Nicolas Orgeira is a a Doctoral Fellow with the Local Government Initiative (LoGRI), an initiative of ICTD based at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto.
Citation: Barras, Camille. Mukazayire, Marie-Reine. Vitouley, Marcel. Pillai, Nicolas Orgeira. (2026) “Navigating Centralized Institutional Arrangements of Property Tax Administration: Insights from Benin.” Policy Brief 14. University of Toronto: Local Government Revenue Initiative.
