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Dr Vanessa van den Boogaard

Research Fellow

Informality and Tax Co-Lead

Vanessa van den Boogaard is a Research Fellow at ICTD and a Senior Research Associate at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto. She completed her PhD thesis on informal revenue generation and statebuilding in Sierra Leone, and has ongoing research on the topic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, and Somalia. Vanessa co-leads ICTD's research programme on informality and tax.
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Publications

Journal Article

The Politics of Passage: Studying Checkpoints and Claim Making in Conflict-affected Settings

May 2026
Peer Schouten, Vanessa van den Boogaard, Max Gallien, Shalaka Thakur & Florian Weigand
Book

Elgar Encyclopedia of African Politics Chapter 31: Formalisation

March 2026
Max Gallien & Vanessa van den Boogaard
Book

Elgar Encyclopedia of African Politics Chapter 82: Taxation and state-building

March 2026
Vanessa van den Boogaard & Tanya Bandula-Irwin
Partner Publication

Beyond the state, but reinforcing it? Informal tax institutions and state legitimacy in the Democratic Republic of Congo

February 2026
Vanessa van den Boogaard, Yannick Lokaya Bokasola, Gayatri Sahgal & Caleb Jérémie Dohou
Working Paper

Zakat as Non-State Social Welfare Provision: Distributional Dynamics and Gender Equity in Pakistan

January 2026
Max Gallien, Umair Javed & Vanessa van den Boogaard
Partner Publication

Tax, informality and gender equity in lower-income countries

October 2025
Max Gallien & Vanessa van den Boogaard
See all Related Publications

Blogs

See all blogs
Wide shot of a series of 6 apartments complexes that are under construction in Islamabad, Pakistan
June 2025|
Blog

Pakistan’s support for wealth taxes

by Max Gallien, Umair Javed & Vanessa van den Boogaard

In a context marked by deepening fiscal constraint, wealth taxes offer a potential solution for Pakistan as they have done in many other. …

General street scene in Hamar Weyne market in the Somali capital Mogadishu
April 2025|
Blog

Why tax matters in fragile states and how donors can support it

by Vanessa van den Boogaard

Fragile contexts are home to 24% of the world’s population (1.9 billion people), and three-quarters (73%)…

Wide shot of people in a street in Lahore, Pakistan.
March 2025|
Blog

Pakistanis are paying over 1.7 billion GBP in zakat every year—mostly to women

by Max Gallien, Umair Javed & Vanessa van den Boogaard

Every year, hundreds of millions of Muslims across the world pay a proportion – broadly 2,5%…

Wide shot of a large group of people facing the camera.
March 2025|
Blog

Reasons to be Optimistic about Tax and the Informal Sector

by Max Gallien & Vanessa van den Boogaard

There are many reasons to be anxious about the taxation of informal sectors in lower income…

Two market traders walking by cars with baskets of goods over their heads
March 2023|
Blog

Ghana’s e-levy is unfair to the poor and misses its revenue target: A lesson in mobile money tax design

by Vanessa van den Boogaard, Max Gallien, Nana Akua Anyidoho & Michael Rogan

The levy’s effects – on Ghana’s public finances, its poor, mobile money usage –have been at the centre of intense and polarising public conversations, much of it without empirical basis….

Red vodafone mobile money kiosk in Ghana
October 2022|
Blog

New data on the e-levy in Ghana: Unpopular tax on mobile money transfers is hitting the poor hardest

by Vanessa van den Boogaard, Max Gallien, Michael Rogan & Nana Akua Anyidoho

In Ghana, the “e-levy” has been linked to the current administration’s “Ghana Beyond Aid” strategy for reducing aid dependence….

News and events

See all news and events
Event
Flyer of the webinar on roadblocks and the politics of passage
30 June 2026
Webinar: The politics of passage – New research on checkpoints and revenue in conflict

This webinar launches the Development and Change special issue, The Politics of Passage: Checkpoints and Authority amidst Conflict, drawing on the Roadblocks and Revenues research series….

News
Max Gallien and Vanessa van den Boogaard with the Finance Office at the Municipality of Korle Klottey in Ghana on the day of signing the new MoU
April 2026
ICTD signs new partnerships for largest study of market taxation in Accra

ICTD signs three new MOUs with municipal authorities in Ghana for a project on the taxation of Accra’s markets. …

News
Woman Holding and Reading a Book
March 2026
Five recommended reads on gender and tax for International Women’s Day 2026

This International Women’s Day, we highlight the role of fiscal policy in advancing gender equality and…

Research Projects

Completed Project

Traditional Leaders, Taxation, and Statebuilding in Sierra Leone

Completed Project

Informal Taxation and Gender in the Informal Economy in Accra

Completed Project

The Logic of Armed Group Taxation

Current Project

Informal taxation and gender in the informal economy in Accra

Max Gallien, Institute of Development Studies & Vanessa van den Boogaard, University of Toronto
Completed Project

The political economy of conflict and taxation in Somalia

Vanessa van den Boogaard & Najibullah Nor Isak
Completed Project

Zakat, tax and the state: Obligation and charity in times of Covid-19

Max Gallien, Vanessa van den Boogaard, Umair Javed & Soukayna Remmal
See all Related Projects
[email protected]
+44 (0) 1273 606261
International Centre for Tax and Development, Institute of Development Studies (IDS) Brighton, BN1 9RE, United Kingdom
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