The Domestic Revenue Mobilization (DRM) programme, implemented by UNU-WIDER and funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), aims to address the challenges of raising domestic revenue in the Global South in order to finance public spending in a sustainable manner. The programme focuses on strengthening domestic capacities for revenue collection, which is critical for financing public goods and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly those related to poverty reduction, inequality, and sustainable economic growth. Through its partnerships, the DRM programme contributes to building effective states, reducing inequalities, and supporting sustainable development in low- and middle-income countries.
Building on the successes of the first phase (2020–23), the second phase of the DRM programme (1 January 2024 – 31 December 2027) seeks to further increase its visibility within policy and research communities. Phase 2 will address the challenges of raising domestic revenue to finance public spending in a sustainable manner, ultimately aiming to combat poverty and inequality in Global South countries. The programme is structured around three interconnected thematic areas: the empirics of taxation and social protection, environmental taxation and just energy transition, and tax and governance work. These themes align closely with UNU-WIDER's 2024–27 work programme, focusing on addressing key global challenges such as inequality, conflict, and fiscal space, as well as the cross-cutting themes of data, gender, and climate.
Tax and governance work
Environmental taxation and just energy transition
The empirics of tax and social protection
The Domestic Revenue Mobilization programme is a vital initiative aimed at enhancing the capacity of countries in the Global South to mobilize domestic revenue effectively. By focusing on key thematic areas—tax and governance, environmental taxation and just energy transition, and the empirics of taxation and social protection—the programme contributes to more equitable and sustainable development outcomes. Through partnerships, research, and capacity development, the DRM programme seeks to create lasting impact and support countries in achieving their development goals.
The political economy of taxation
GRD - Government Revenue Dataset
Building trust and institutions for peace
Focal point | Kunal Sen
Programme and Partnerships | Lumi Young
Communications | Annett Victorero, Marie-France Boucher
Financial support from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad)
This paper uses survey and tax administrative data to analyse the effects of a sizeable employer-borne payroll tax credit for young, low-wage workers in South Africa. We find fairly limited impacts of the wage subsidy on the employment of young, low...
At the last meeting of the Community of Practice on Gender and Tax (CoPGT), held on 10th September 2024, the conversation focused on microsimulation...
The collection of value added tax (VAT) is essential for achieving domestic revenue objectives, yet VAT gap estimation is rarely performed in developing countries. This study utilizes innovative tax declaration and audit data to estimate VAT...
The 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) in Seville, Spain, will convene in 2025, providing a global stage for countries...
Low-income countries face the combined challenges of climate shocks and limited domestic revenue mobilization, yet these issues are rarely studied together. This paper provides new evidence on the impact of climate shocks on firm performance and tax...
Aggressive profit shifting by multinational enterprises (MNEs) is a growing concern for domestic resource mobilization in developing economies. This paper evaluates the revenue and welfare consequences of a flagship tax avoidance rule that has been...
Esta nota técnica diz respeito ao conjunto de ferramentas sobre as disparidades fiscais, que inclui código (o do-file do Stata) e um arquivo README (como executar o código). A nota técnica descreve a literatura e a metodologia subjacentes ao...
La presente nota se refiere al toolkit para la estimación de brechas tributarias, que incluye el código (archivos DO de Stata) y el archivo README (instrucciones para ejecutar el código). Esta nota describe la bibliografía y la metodología que...
Cette note technique concerne le guide pratique sur les écarts fiscaux, qui comprend un code (fichier Stata) et un fichier README (comment exécuter le code). La note décrit la littérature et la méthodologie derrière le développement du guide. Ce...
This technical note relates to the tax gap toolkit, which includes code (Stata do files) and a README file (how to run the code). The note describes the literature and methodology behind the development of the toolkit. The tax gap toolkit is related...
In post-conflict settings, the ability to collect taxes is essential for building a strong government and supporting long-term development. In...
The extent of redistribution in low-income developing countries, including in Africa, is very limited, which raises the question whether the tax rates of high-income individuals should be raised. A crucial parameter when considering a potential...
This paper analyses the impact of armed groups and their taxation practices on the municipal fishing sector of the Zamboanga Peninsula in Mindanao, Philippines. Leveraging novel qualitative and quantitative data, we find clear evidence of armed group...
This study measures the VAT compliance gap for small and medium-sized entities in Tanzania. Specifically, the study measures the under-reporting component of the VAT compliance gap. This study uses VAT declaration and audit data to conduct a bottom...
Recent evidence from developing countries shows that the bottom of the income distribution pays more taxes relative to their income than the top 1%, highlighting a lack of tax progressivity in these societies. Current measures of tax progressivity...
This technical note describes the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) presumptive tax returns data covering financial years from 2015/16 to 2022/23. The data contains 21 variables, including information on taxpayers’ characteristics, turnover, and payable...
Tax revenues are fundamental to state-building and development, particularly in the aftermath of conflict. Through the lens of the recent post-conflict experience of Colombia, this paper explores the challenges of increasing tax revenues amid...
We investigate the behavioural responses of individual taxpayers to changes in marginal personal income tax rates applying empirical bunching methodology to tax administrative data from Zambia over the period from 2014 to 2021. We find evidence for...
Technical assistance and increased use of ICT in tax administrations hold promise for greater revenue collection. Yet, the evidence on how these activities work in the real-world circumstances of developing countries is scant. The paper attempts to...
The impact of conflict on taxation and development has long been debated. Most studies suggest that conflict will have a depressive effect on state tax collection, negatively impacting economic growth and development. After reviewing the existing...
Why do some conflict-affected areas remain an arena of violent contestation of the state, while others transition to peace? I suggest that economic networks developed during intrastate conflict—i.e. wartime economies—give rise to continued pockets of...
As greenhouse gases once again climb to record levels, countries are under pressure to make the move to a low-carbon economy. Policies that move in...
ARTICLE IS ON EARLY VIEW | This study investigates the effects of taxation on income inequality in an unbalanced panel of 45 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa over the period 1980–2018. We use two-stage least squares and the instrumental variables...
This report documents ZANMOD, the SOUTHMOD model developed for Zanzibar. This work was carried out by staff at Zanzibar University, the Second Vice President’s Office in Zanzibar, the University of Dar es Salaam, and the University of Dodoma, in...
This report documents PERUMOD, the SOUTHMOD model developed for Peru. This work was carried out by UNU-WIDER in collaboration with the Universidad del Pacífico (UP) in Peru. The results presented in this report are derived using PERUMOD version 2.5...
This report documents ECUAMOD, the SOUTHMOD model developed for Ecuador. This work was carried out by the International Inequalities Institute at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in collaboration with the Facultad...
This report documents COLMOD, the SOUTHMOD model developed for Colombia. This work was carried out by the Observatorio de Desarrollo y Política Social (ODEPS) at Facultad de Economía, Universidad Externado de Colombia. The results presented in this...
This report documents BOLMOD, the SOUTHMOD model developed for Bolivia. This work was carried out independently by Cristina Arancibia and David Macas. The results presented in this report are derived using BOLMOD version 2.1, which is part of the...
This report documents MicroZAMOD, the SOUTHMOD model developed for Zambia. This work was carried out by Zambia Institute for Policy Analysis & Research (ZIPAR) in collaboration with the project partners. The results presented in this report are...
This report documents MOZMOD, the SOUTHMOD model developed for Mozambique. This work was carried out by the Ministry of Economy and Finance of Mozambique in collaboration with the project partners. The results presented in this report are derived...
This report documents TAZMOD, the SOUTHMOD model developed for Tanzania Mainland. This work was carried out by University of Dar es Salaam in collaboration with the project partners. The results presented in this report are derived using TAZMOD...
This report documents UGAMOD, the SOUTHMOD model developed for Uganda. This work was carried out by Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) and Makerere University in collaboration with the project partners. The results presented in this report are derived...
This report documents VNMOD, the SOUTHMOD model developed for Viet Nam. This work has been carried out by the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM) in collaboration with UNU-WIDER and SASPRI. The results presented in this report are...
This report documents GHAMOD, the SOUTHMOD model developed for Ghana. This work was carried out by the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) at the University of Ghana in collaboration with the project partners. The results...
This report documents ETMOD, the SOUTHMOD model developed for Ethiopia. The Ethiopian national team currently includes Adnan A. Shahir, Abas Mohammed Ali (Ministry of Planning and Development, Ethiopia), and Francesco Figari (University of Eastern...
This report documents RWAMOD, the SOUTHMOD model developed for Rwanda. This work was carried out by UNU-WIDER, SASPRI, and the Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA). The results presented in this report are derived using RWAMOD version 1.1, which is part of...
Uganda, with a fiscal deficit of 5.6% in 2023, has increasingly turned to local resources to make up for its revenue shortfall since the World Bank...
This paper analyses the effectiveness of tax-benefit systems in reducing poverty and inequality across 13 countries in the Global South. Using national survey data and tax-benefit microsimulation models from the SOUTHMOD project, we provide a cross...
This paper compares two important sources of tax revenue statistics for African countries, namely the Africa Tax Administration Forum’s African Tax Outlook and the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research's...
Improving tax systems is important for multiple reasons. For Kenya, finding ways to mobilize domestic revenue streams is critical to cutting the...
Theme: 2024-27
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