Date
Study Covers Three East African Countries: Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia
Nairobi June 10, 2019, Tax Justice Network Africa and the Programming Unit at Save the Children East and Southern Africa, announce the launch of TJNA’ study on African governments’ commitments to invest in children. The launch that will happen on the Day of the African Child (DAC) the 16th of June 2019 will be preceded by an awareness campaign around the study on social media. From Tuesday, June 11, 2019, the awareness campaign that focuses on the nexus between tax and child rights, is aimed at educating the general public on the important role tax revenues can play in the realization of children rights and sustainable development in Africa.
African Governments are parties to several declarations on top of the United Nations convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and the African Charter on the Rights and welfare of the Child (ACRWC). These include among others:
- the Abuja Declarations and Frameworks for Action on Roll Back Malaria where by African Union member Nations pledged to increase their health budget to at least 15% of the state's annual budget;
- the Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security in Africa through which governments committed to the allocation of at least 10% of national budgetary resources to agriculture and rural development policy implementation;
- the Incheon Declaration and Framework for Action for the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 4 in which signatories are urged to commit 4-6% of their Gross domestic product or 15-20% of their public expenditures to improving the status of education.
Alvin Mosioma, executive director at TJNA says: “Tax revenue can assist governments to finance development and reduce dependence on foreign aid, debt and foreign direct investment among other volatile sources of finance. Moreover, tax revenue can be used to increase investment in sectors that benefit vulnerable members of society especially children” However, there are harmful tax practices that undermine the efforts of States therefore eroding tax base and weakening the ability of African governments to mobilise domestic revenue.
Revenue losses due to inopportune tax systems are well known. Each year countries in Africa lost millions of USDs. This ultimately results in governments collecting insufficient revenue to improve investment in children related public services in sectors such as health, education, agriculture or social protection. “With the study, we wanted to map governments’ commitments to invest in children against national budgets in ESA countries that have reported and received concluding observations from the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC). The end goal being to provide policy recommendations per country for the improvement of fiscal commitments made to children.” says Riva Jalipa, Policy Lead, Fair and Equitable Taxation at TJNA.
The study is a perfect opportunity to sensitize the general public and raise awareness on the nexus between tax and child rights; two topics that are scarcely linked. During two weeks, TJNA will educate on those, on social media and mainstream media in the three countries of the study. We invite journalists and human rights activists to join the campaign and spread the word. The campaign can be followed on Facebook, Twitter with the #TaxForChildRights and TJNA’s website taxjusticeafrica.net.
For more information please contact Cynthia Umurungi on cumurungi@taxjusticeafrica.net