Digital public infrastructure (DPI) holds great potential in strengthening increasingly digitalised tax administration, but important questions persist on how to fully unlock this potential for governments in low-income countries.

Drawing from their work under ICTD’s recently concluded DIGITAX Research Programme, Research Fellow Fabrizio Santoro and Research Officer Celeste Scarpini shared key findings and lessons learnt on the matter during an internal seminar hosted by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) last week.

Santoro and Scarpini discussed how various DPI components – digital ID, digital payments, and data exchange systems – are being used in African tax administrations as well as the challenges that come with their adoption, and likewise identified further areas of research.

They were joined by Caroline Khene, lead of IDS’ Digital and Technology Cluster, who discussed the broader fundamental issues concerning digitalisation reforms in governments and how these link back to the potential of DPI. The seminar was chaired by ICTD Research Director Martin Hearson.

Watch it here:

DIGITAX was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Read research produced under the programme here.

Fabrizio Santoro

Fabrizio is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, and the Research Lead for the second component of the ICTD's DIGITAX Research Programme. His main research interests relate to governance, public finance, and taxation, with a strong focus on impact evaluation methodologies and statistical analysis. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Sussex.

Celeste Scarpini

Celeste Scarpini is a Research Officer at the ICTD, and a PhD student at the Department of Economics, University of Sussex. Her main research interests relate to tax administration in sub-Saharan Africa, from technology adoption to data management and revenue collection strategies.

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.