LoGRI to Host Side Event in the Lead up to the Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4)

LoGRI and the ICTD will be hosting a side event at the Second Preparatory Committee Session of the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4). The event will be held in person on December 3rd, from 10:00 to 11:30 am at the UN Headquarters in New York, in Conference Room A. 

The event comes in the wake of the publication of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda – which laid out a high-level agenda for financing for development, including for building more effective and progressive tax systems – and the newly released Elements Paper – which references a much wider range of issues related to domestic tax systems including informal sector taxation, digitalization of tax administration, taxing high-net-worth individuals, and enhanced subnational taxation.

While these publications devote much-needed attention to own-source revenue mobilization in low- and middle-income countries, important questions remain. How can we ensure the inclusion of these issues in the FfD4 agenda is as substantive and effective as possible? What should the key priorities and central messages be?

The Preparatory Session and the FfD4 Conference offer key stakeholders a unique opportunity to forge a more comprehensive agenda for strengthening domestic tax systems in low- and middle-income countries. Leveraging their agile and applied research on these topics, LoGRI and the ICTD will co-host an event titled: “Building More Effective and Equitable Tax Systems in Lower-Income Countries: Strategies and Priorities for FfD4.”

The event speakers and topics will include:

• Strengthening subnational taxes: Dr Colette Nyirakamana (University of Toronto)
• Taxing of the informal sector: Dr Vanessa van den Boogaard (Institute of Development Studies, University of Toronto)
• Digitalizing tax systems: Dr Oyebola Okunogbe (World Bank)
• Taxing the wealthy: Dr Wilson Prichard (University of Toronto, Institute of Development Studies)

Alongside discussants:

• Dr Amina Ebrahim (UNU-WIDER)
• Ana Henche Cuesta (General Directorate of Sustainable Development Policies, Spain)
• Dr Caren Grown (Brookings Institution)
• Thomas Lassourd (International Institute for Sustainable Development)