Publication

This policy brief advocates a push for broader-based taxation in fragile states as well as taxing the aid machinery operating in them. According to the author, four advantages would ensue from such measures: more sustainable and less donor-dependent funding of core state functions in security and service provision; new organizational lessons on how to increase the capacity to tax that can be used in other parts of the public sector; improved state-society relations around revenue bargaining that increase people's say over government tax and spending in exchange for tax compliance; and practical donor support to build broad-based and fair tax systems, with fewer tax exemptions for the powerful and influential.