They say powerful interests often stand in the way of reform Tax Justice Network Africa acting communications, campaigns and outreach manager Christine Mutinda. /JACKTONE LAWI Tax Justice Network Africa acting communications, campaigns and outreach manager Christine Mutinda.
/JACKTONE LAWI When 32-year-old market trader Mary Atieno takes her son to a public hospital, she is not thinking about tax policy. She is thinking about whether there will be enough medicine, whether she will spend hours in a queue and whether she can afford treatment if supplies run out.
Atieno is just one among many Kenyans, who do not know how loss of taxes through dubious means is denying her basic needs. Yet experts say the challenges facing hospitals, schools and other public services are often linked to a problem most people rarely hear about, governments losing billions of dollars in tax revenue every year.
According to tax justice advocates, one major reason is that powerful interests often stand in the way of reform. Tax Justice Network Africa acting communications, campaigns and outreach manager Christine Mutinda, says that despite massive evidence and solution meant to stop financial losses from African states, office bearers are not acting.
"We often assume that if we produce enough evidence, decision-makers will act. In reality, evidence competes with political interests, competing priorities, public opinion and power dynamics. That is why advocacy must be strategic," said Mutinda during a training session on Policy and Advocacy in Practice at the International Tax Justice Academy (ITJA).
Across Africa, researchers, economists and civil society groups have spent years documenting how weak tax systems, illicit financial flows and hidden company ownership structures reduce the amount of money governments collect. Mutinda now says tax justice advocates must move beyond producing evidence and focus on influencing the policies, systems and institutions that shape development outcomes on the continent.