In October, Professor Wilson Prichard, Chair of the Local Government Revenue Initiative (LoGRI) and Associate Professor at Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, gave a keynote presentation at the African Mayoral Leadership Initiative’s (AMALI) “Strengthening Revenue Mobilization to Deliver Transformative Changes in your Cities” event in Nairobi, Kenya.
The AMALI program, anchored at the African Center for Cities at the University of Cape Town, was launched in 2022 to support ambitious Mayors and Governors from across Africa seeking to deliver transformative change in their sub-national areas. It offers a comprehensive year-long program of support to a new cohort of Mayors each focused on building strategic plans to deliver major public initiatives.
Professor Prichard was recruited to join the program as a lead advisor and mentor on local revenue mobilization, as many Mayors and Governors struggled to raise the finances needed to deliver on their ambitious agendas. As a part of this ongoing collaboration, AMALI invited him to give the final address to the 2024 cohort at a three-day immersive reunion in Nairobi. The high-level discussion focused on why and how local governments may strengthen the mobilization of tax revenues to finance public infrastructure and services.
In his presentation, Professor Prichard emphasized the importance of taxes as the foundation for financing local development efforts and building local fiscal social contracts. Many sub-national governments have focused attention on seemingly less challenging funding sources, including central government transfers, donor funds, public-private partnerships and borrowing. However, it is ultimately successful in first mobilizing tax revenues that can provide sub-national governments with the autonomy to define their own development agendas, the financial foundation to access international funding and an opportunity to build strong ties of reciprocity and accountability with citizens.
Drawing on LoGRI’s wealth of experience, Professor Prichard suggested three key lessons for reform. To leverage own-source revenues, local governments should (1) adopt simplified technical models that match local capacity and resources, (2) make property taxes a political winner by using revenues to improve public services, and (3) find a way to work with central governments to ensure support from the highest level. Professor Prichard concluded the presentation by highlighting an immensely successful property tax reform project in Freetown, Sierra Leone, supported by LoGRI, that tripled revenue collection while enhancing the system’s overall fairness, transparency and legitimacy with the public.
Professor Prichard’s speech marked the end of three days of impactful and innovative discussions exploring the challenges and opportunities facing the continent, while forming part of a broader partnership in supporting Mayors to fund sustainable development efforts.
Hosted by: AMALI