Vanessa van den Boogaards speaks at Devex panel on domestic resources
ICTD Research Fellow Vanessa van den Boogaard participated at the Devex panel on dometic resources during the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings in Washington, D.C. on the 16th of October.
“I see tax as absolutely critical to sustainable development in general,” she said. “Tax is already the primary source of financing for lower-income countries. But as aid budgets continue to shrink, it will also continue to be linchpin of development finance more generally.”
Read more about the “Tax Era of Development” here.
Awa Diouf pens piece for The Conversation on mobile money tax in Senegal
ICTD Research Fellow Awa Diouf published an article at The Conversation on the taxation of digital financial services in Senegal. Her piece was republished in the Dakar Times.
Mick Moore featured in local media on Sri Lanka tax administration
ICTD Research Fellow Mick Moore garners local media coverage, including in the DailyFT and The Island Online, following his participation in a ‘Debt and Tax Dialogue’, organised by Arutha Research earlier this month,
In one article, he was quoted as saying: “Customs in Sri Lanka, in terms of its organisation and its work methods, is about 20 years behind many African countries. It’s not very nice to hear, but to be honest, the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) is pretty much in that same ballpark. It’s not that far away.”
Devex cites ICTD blog on DPI in Africa
A news article on Devex, entitled “Between aid cuts and debt crises, Africa bets on its own tax systems,” cited a 2024 ICTD blog authored by Fabrizio Santoro and Lucia Rossel on the potential of digital public infrastructure (DPI) in simplifying tax administration and boost tax compliance across the continent. The report specifically mentioned the case study of Rwanda’s e-tax system.
ICTD brief on UN tax negotiations cited in Tax Notes report
Following the first round of substance negotiations for a new UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation (UN Tax Convention), Tax Notes featured extensively ICTD Policy Brief 19, on the trade-offs surrounding Protocol 1.
The article also quoted ICTD Associate Postdoctoral Fellow Frederik Heitmüller, who attended the first week of the sessions earlier this month, saying in part: “Delegates were still divided on the scope of the protocol and which services would be covered.”
Read the full article here and more about our work on the UN Tax Convention here.
Vanessa van den Boogaard pens piece on Trump’s remittance tax for Foreign Policy
ICTD Research Fellow Vanessa van den Boogaard published an op-ed on the likely consequences of the US’s recently introduced 1 per cent tax on cash-based remittances. The piece, co-authored with Maastricht University’s Ana Isabel López García, argues in part: “The tax will have devastating and destabilising effects on the world’s poorest countries — many of which have already been severely impacted by the Trump administration’s drastic aid cuts.”
Giulia Mascagni guests on Voice of Islam
ICTD Executive Director Giulia Mascagni was interviewed on Voice of Islam’s Drive Time show, during which she weigned in on the impact of global aid cuts on development financing, as well as the role of domestic resource mobilisation in this context. Listen to the July 7 episode (9:30mins onwards) here.
Tax Expenditures coalition co-founded by ICTD features in TaxNotes report
The Coalition for Tax Expenditure Reform, launched under the Sevilla Platform for Action by ICTD and four other global research and policy institutes, was cited in the TaxNotes wrap story on the 4th Financing for Development Conference. The article outlined relevant tax initiatives that came out of the UN summit.
FfD4: Giulia Mascagni shares insights on ‘tax era of development’ at Casa Devex
At Day 1 of the Fourth Financing for Development Conference (FfD4) in Seville, ICTD Executive Director Giulia Mascagni was interviewed at Casa Devex about how domestic resource mobilisation, and taxation in particular, features centrally in the Compromiso de Sevilla. Watch the full interview here or the read the comprehensive article here.
Devex likewise mentioned the Coalition on Tax Expenditure Reform, of which ICTD is part, in another article outlining the events of the summit’s second day.
Max Gallien, Vanessa van den Boogaard, and external author Umair Javed pen op-ed on support for wealth taxes in Pakistan
ICTD Research Fellows Max Gallien and Vanessa van den Boogaard, co-leads of the Centre’s Informality and Taxation programme, along with Umair Javed, have published an op-ed in the Dawn on public-support for wealth taxes in Pakistan.
Giovanni Occhiali quoted in Forbes article
ICTD Research Fellow Giovanni Occhiali shared his insights in a Forbes article, entitled “Can Improving Taxation in Africa Help Meet Health Needs?“, on the risks and opportunites African countries face in terms of improving current tax systems to address development demands, amidst “waning foreign assistance around the world”. “‘[T]here is a risk that governments facing immediate cuts … might be incentivised to take short-term action that might prove counterpoductive in the long term,'” he said in part.
Tax Notes quotes Rhiannon McCluskey on value of DRM in development financing
ICTD policy consultant Rhiannon McCluskey was quoted in a Tax Notes article on the critical role domestic resource mobilisation, specifically taxation, plays as countries prepare to head to the Fourth Financing for Development (FfD4) conference in Seville at the end of June. McCluskey said as countries face growing fiscal pressure, given dramatic cuts to aid budgets, among others, they will tend to make quick decisions on tax policy. She cautioned, however, that “when these are not informed by good evidence, they can really backfire.”
Read more of ICTD’s work around FfD4 here.