Profile

Nara Monkam is an Associate Professor of Public Economics in the Department of Economics and the Head of the Public Policy Hub (PPH) at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. Prior to that, she was the Director of Research at the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) where she executed the organisation’s research agenda to guide African tax policy and reforms and managed relationships with member countries and donors. She was also a member of the Davis Tax Committee aimed at reassessing the South African tax system.

In addition to teaching and research in public economics in general and taxation in particular, Nara Monkam is responsible for establishing and leading the Public Policy Hub at the University of Pretoria which aims at positioning UP as a knowledge intermediary, fostering a greater adoption of sustainable, evidence-based public policies in Africa by promoting collaboration between academic research and government public policy through the co-creation of transdisciplinary and policy-relevant research for better development outcomes in Africa. Through this seminal initiative, the University of Pretoria seeks to ensure that its cutting-edge research translates into progressive policies, solutions and innovations that will advance society.

Nara Monkam holds a PhD degree in Economics from the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University in Atlanta (USA) and both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Economics from the University of Namur in Belgium. Her areas of expertise and research interests center mainly on domestic resource mobilization, tax policy and tax administration, intergovernmental fiscal relations, and property taxation reforms.