TAZMOD retreat

The fifth training event on TAZMOD, the tax-benefit microsimulation model for Tanzania, is organized as a five-day research retreat, intended to empower participants to use TAZMOD to answer their own policy questions.

The retreat is composed of two parts: a refresher on the use of the model (2.5 days) and a retreat portion (2.5 days). In the latter section, participants break out in groups, develop their own policy questions, model them using TAZMOD, and examine and interpret the results.

This work is geared towards writing policy notes that are expected to be developed further after the retreat and eventually disseminated to policymakers and other interested audiences. In addition to informing local policymakers at large, the policy notes serve to answer questions that are critical for the work of the participants themselves.

The retreat serves as a capacity development initiative where attendees will not only get acquainted with the TAZMOD model but also learn to use it to address pertinent policy questions. The participants will complete the retreat with an appreciation of the opportunities to leverage TAZMOD to evaluate proposed or hypothetical policy reforms and to provide quantitative evidence on their effectiveness.

The retreat will also serve as a forum to build a community of TAZMOD users in Tanzania, generate ownership of the model beyond the national team from University of Dar es Salaam and University of Dodoma, and expand the model user base and expertise at relevant local institutions.

The TAZMOD research retreat welcomes participants from both government and academia. Most of the chosen participants have attended at least one of the previous TAZMOD training events.

The retreat is organized in Dar es Salaam, and delivered by the SOUTHMOD national team at University of Dar es Salaam, Dr Michael Noble from Southern African Social Policy Research Insights (SASPRI), and Dr Rodrigo Oliveira from UNU-WIDER. A key feature of the retreat is that the national team will take the lead in organizing and delivering the retreat.

This initiative is part of UNU-WIDER's SOUTHMOD – simulating tax and benefit policies for development project. SOUTHMOD is part of UNU-WIDER's research and capacity development programme on domestic revenue mobilization (DRM), funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Co-operation (Norad).