Last January, ICTD launched its first fully funded set of PhD scholarships*. The aim was to support tax experts and practitioners from countries in Africa and South Asia to deepen their research skills and contribute to a local evidence base by funding PhD projects on taxation.
Over 240 applied for the four available scholarships, in which students would be expected to participate in ICTD events and contribute to blogs or papers for the Centre’s publications series.
To select only four students from the large pool of highly qualified applicants, three criteria were taken into consideration namely the academic quality of the research proposal, candidates’ profiles including their skills and previous experience, and finally their fit with the available supervisors and ICTD’s research interest.
Read below the experiences of some of our selected PhD students who started their journey in September 2023, and are currently based at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex:
Seid Yimam, from Ethiopia, conducting his PhD research on the role of Information Communication Technologies and other policy options in domestic revenue mobilisation and fiscal state-building in countries across Sub-Saharan Africa
“I have been working in collaboration with ICTD since 2019 and have had the chance to attend ICTD’s teaching and learning course as well. During my engagements with ICTD, I came to understand the research gaps in taxation especially in low-income countries. I then developed a stubborn interest in doing my PhD in taxation and wrote my PhD proposal even before ICTD’s call for applications was announced. When I saw this call, I decided to take the chance and apply for the scholarship.
ICTD aims to improve tax policy and administration in lower-income countries through collaborative research and engagement. My research interests are quite aligned with the Centre’s broader thematic areas and the call for PhD applications was a fantastic opportunity in this case. I aim in my PhD to investigate the role of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) and other policy options in domestic revenue mobilisation and fiscal state-building in countries across Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). I am also certain that my research topic could easily swing between other issues in tax administration and compliance, gender and taxation, and informality either in a single country, like Ethiopia, or in a cross-country setting in SSA.
The ICTD staff were significantly helpful and highly responsive throughout the application process. I received constructive feedback on my proposal, and all in all, they made every step easier for me.”
Ahsan Zia Farooqui, from Pakistan, conducting his PhD research on low tax compliance and low tax morale in low-middle-income countries
“My journey so far with ICTD has been phenomenal. As someone who had never lived outside Pakistan and left a young family back home, I felt really welcomed and supported through the leadership, management, fellows and admin staff at ICTD and I look forward to completing this exciting PhD journey. This atmosphere also contributed to my instant integration within a diverse team of colleagues. Moreover, as part of a large and active organisation like ICTD, I am constantly encouraged to leverage its diverse network extending across Africa, the UK and other countries and to get extended support for my research interests.
My PhD research topic focuses on understanding the drivers of low tax compliance and low tax morale in low-middle-income countries (LMICs). Using the case of Pakistan and urban immovable property taxation as my key tax instrument of study, I am looking at how tax policy design can lead to significant revenue losses and how it can be modified to increase efficiency and equity. This is an important policy question because tax policy design-related issues result in insufficient funds for effective service delivery and consequently lead to negative sentiments among taxpayers towards the government therefore impacting their unwillingness to pay taxes. Within this context, I am interested in investigating how behavioural nudges and technology can improve tax morale and whether these nudges are effective in increasing tax compliance.”
*The ICTD fully funded PhD scholarship was a one-time-only opportunity with no plans of holding another call for applications in 2024.