Over the past two decades, lower-income countries, donors, and international organisations have devoted considerable effort to strengthening lower-income countries’ capacity to tax cross-border economic activity. Much of this effort has centred on adopting and implementing international tax standards developed in bodies of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Yet critics have long argued that these standards are poorly suited to lower-income contexts.

This webinar launches the ‘Comparative Perspectives on International Tax from the Global South‘ project, started by the International Centre for Tax and Development (ICTD), in 2024. The project examines how governments in seven countries — Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Uganda, and Zambia — engage with international tax standards in practice, focusing on exchange of information, bilateral tax treaties, transfer pricing rules, and digital services taxation.

The webinar will introduce the project, share key findings, and offer room for discussion with the researchers.

Speakers

  • Frederik Heitmüller, Associate Postdoctoral Fellow, ICTD
  • Daisy Ogembo, Research Fellow, ICTD
  • Katia Toledo Ruiz, PhD Researcher, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business
  • Isaac Danso Agyiri, PhD Researcher, University of Oxford
  • Dan Ngabirano, Lecturer, Makerere University
  • Anthony Munanda, Head of International and Cross Border Taxation, African Tax Administration Forum

The session will be moderated by ICTD Research Director and International Tax lead Martin Hearson.

Event Details
Date
7 July 2026
Time
-

Martin Hearson

Martin Hearson is a Research Fellow at IDS, Research Director of the ICTD and the International Tax programme lead. His research focuses on the politics of international business taxation, and in particular the relationship between developed and developing countries. Before joining ICTD, Martin was a fellow in international political economy at the London School of Economics and Political Science, teaching courses on political economy and global financial governance.

Frederik Heitmüller

Frederik Heitmüller is an Associate Postdoctoral Fellow with ICTD’s International Tax Team. His research focuses on policies against corporate tax avoidance, the influence of international norms in the Global South and global tax governance. He is also an independent consultant on tax policy. Prior to joining ICTD, he obtained a PhD from Leiden University, Netherlands, where he investigated the political economy of the BEPS Project in the Global South as member of the GLOBTAXGOV project, and taught courses on international and comparative taxation. He has a master’s degree in political science from Sciences Po Bordeaux and University of Stuttgart.

Daisy Ogembo

Daisy Ogembo is a Research Fellow at ICTD. Often using an interdisciplinary approach, her work focuses on the taxation of hard-to-tax groups, constitutional issues in taxation, and digital aspects of taxation. She earned her DPhil from the University of Oxford and was the recipient of numerous prestigious awards including the British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellowship and the Harvey Fellowship. Prior to joining ICTD, Daisy was an Assistant Professor of law at the University of Birmingham. Her current research includes completing a monograph on taxation and transformative constitutionalism, investigating legal and governance issues in the use of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) in tax administration, and expanding her research on higher income earners in the informal sector.

Katia Toledo Ruiz

Katia Toledo Ruiz is a doctoral student in the Doctoral Programme in International Business Taxation at WU Vienna University of Economics and Business, a programme supported by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF): Doc 92-G.

Isaac Danso Agyiri

Isaac Danso Agyiri is a lawyer, chartered accountant, and fiscal policy specialist whose work bridges law, taxation, and sustainable financing for development across Africa. Currently pursuing a PhD in Law at the University of Oxford, his research explores Africa’s role in global tax reform. Isaac has advised Ghana’s Minister of Finance and led research and advocacy at the Tax Justice Network Africa. Isaac has represented clients in tax controversies and served as advising counsel on major energy infrastructure projects. He is a Modern Law Review Scholar and a tax law teacher.

Dan Ngabirano

Dan Ngabirano is a Lecturer in the Commercial Law Department at Makerere University. He is also the Founder and Managing Partner at Development Law Group – Africa. He holds a Bachelor of Laws Degree (LLB) from Makerere University, Uganda; Master of Laws Degree (LLM) from Harvard University, USA; and a Doctor of Juridical Science Degree (SJD) from the University of Iowa, USA.

Anthony Munanda

Anthony Munanda is a transfer pricing and international tax expert with over 19 years of tax experience, and currently oversees the African Tax Administration Forum's (ATAF) work on international and cross border taxation ranging from tax policy development, global tax standard setting, technical assistance and capacity building on these issues.  He also oversees ATAF's work on applied research and statistics to inform evidence-based tax policy recommendations and reforms.