Domestic Resource Mobilization Research Articles

Crossing Battle Death Lines: Why Do Some Insurgent Organizations Escalate Violence to Higher-Intensity Armed Conflicts?

Why do some insurgent groups escalate violence to higher-intensity insurgencies or civil war? We explore this question among 140 insurgent groups worldwide across various thresholds of armed conflict. We argue that the main drivers of escalation are insurgent networks and domestic resource mobilization. Findings show that territorial control and engagement in criminal activities to finance operations are key factors associated with insurgent-inflicted battle deaths. The number of insurgent alliances, however, is the strongest determinant of higher-intensity armed conflicts. State counterinsurgency strategies also play an important role. Many of these insights support an exploratory look at rising insurgent violence in West Africa’s Sahel region.

Huguenots, Jacobites, Prisoners and the Challenge of Military Remittances in Early Modern Warfare

Early modern states faced numerous challenges in supporting their prisoners of war, not least the problems of remitting them money for their subsistence, which had to pass across hostile borders. Examining how the British state achieved this in the War of the Spanish Succession (1702–13) shows the limits of modern scholarship on state formation and its focus on administrative reform and domestic resource mobilisation. The projection of power continued to rely on international Huguenot and even Jacobite financial networks, held together by personal trust and private interests, sometimes even while they were working for the enemy. Success was achieved because British officials were able to tap into these networks through hubs such as London, Amsterdam, Paris and Madrid, and use them to maintain the flow of money abroad.

WASH Financial and Social Investment Dynamics in a Conflict-Arid District of Jariban in Somalia

The paper investigated the social and financial resources’ interface in WASH programmes for vulnerable communities. Nineteen villages were randomly selected from the Jariban district in Somalia using the random number generator based on the village list. Data was collected in a sequential methodology that started with transect walks to observe and record the WASH infrastructure. Thirty-eight focus group discussions and desktop reviews triangulated transact walk recordings. The findings indicate minimum to zero investments towards WASH infrastructure in Jariban from the state government, with more dependency on the donor community. The study revealed that resources for the construction of latrines and water sources come from the following sources, NGOs (54.3%), diaspora community (34.5%) and community contributions (11.2%). The findings revealed a backlog in the WASH infrastructure, resulting in low access to water supply and sanitation services. The results demonstrate limited resource allocation by both the government and community, affecting the WASH infrastructure’s sustainability and further development. Due to the backlog in investments, particularly on improved latrines, it is concluded that their usage is low and a hindrance to having access to sanitation, hygiene and water as per the SDG goals, of leaving no one behind. While investment towards WASH in Jariban demonstrates multiple potential sources, there is a need to strengthen domestic resource mobilisation and explore governments’ role and capacity to secure WASH infrastructure investments. It is also recommended to explore how to tax the remittances to fund WASH infrastructure development and the private sector’s role in WASH infrastructure investment.

Large Fiscal Episodes and Sustainable Development: Some International Evidence

This paper examines the association between episodes of large fiscal impulses (expansions and adjustments) and sustainable development indicators (prosperity, resilience, and inclusivity). We provide country studies of Chile, Poland, South Africa, and Thailand, examining the components of government expenses and tax revenues, and reporting four stylized patterns from the analysis. (i) Fiscal expansions led to higher growth rates and reduced negative trade-offs, e.g., pollution and poor-health mortalities associated with economic growth. (ii) Fiscal adjustments led to a more inclusive economy, lowered poverty headcounts, improved sanitation, and cleaner technology access. (iii) Fiscal expansions followed an increase in direct taxes (especially corporate taxes) and a decline in social contributions, and preceded a decline in other direct taxes and an increase in wage bills. (iv) Fiscal adjustments followed a decline in other direct taxes and social contributions, an increase in wage bills, and preceded a decline in government consumption expenditure and transfers. In light of these findings, the domestic resource mobilization should consider the time paths of the taxes and expenditure components to understand their empirical linkages with the sustainable development outcomes in the respective countries.

Towards a transformative child rights discourse in Africa: A reflexive study

SUMMARY It has been 30 years since the adoption of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. This article takes the opportunity to reflect on where the child rights discourse is going to allow for proactivity in addressing emerging challenges and changing child rights context on the African continent. Using positional reflexivity as the methodology, I identify what I call six transformative promptings which are engendering a shift to the child rights discourse. I argue that for the discourse to be more erudite in ensuring the protection as well as well-being for children on the African continent, these six issues must be seriously considered. The first issue is a shift from child rights alterity to trans-disciplinarity. The second issue involves the evolution of the child rights promotional obligation. The third issue is on the nexus between exponential urbanisation on the African continent and fulfilment of children 's rights. The fourth issue is on the rise of the nebulous information communication technology. The fifth issue is on addressing cross border child rights violations and lastly the small matter of financing child rights using domestic resource mobilisation. Key words: positional reflexivity; children's rights; African Children's Charter

Scaling Up Sustainable Investment through Blockchain-Based Project Bonds

This paper explores options for mobilizing domestic savings through fintech solutions to scale up sustainable investment. Most developing and emerging economies face an urgent need to scale up sustainable finance for low-carbon and climate-resilient infrastructure investment, yet underdeveloped capital markets tend to inhibit domestic resource mobilization for infrastructure investment. At the same time, domestic savers in many developing and emerging economies face a scarcity of “safe” assets in the local currency, resulting in the exporting of capital to financial centers in advanced economies. The paper discusses how fintech can help to complement conventional capital markets and mobilize financial resources for sustainable infrastructure investments. It puts forward a proposal for blockchain-based project bonds to raise finance through a digital crowdfunding platform, which is also able to record transparently and certify the use of proceeds, sustainability impact, and revenue streams of projects by combining timestamp, public and private key mechanisms, and smart contract technologies. This approach would not only provide investors of different sizes with the opportunity to purchase local-currency assets and issuers such as municipalities to raise funds for sustainable infrastructure investment. It would also facilitate project management once the project is operational, for example through metering and billing, and create full transparency over the life cycle of the investment, reducing problems concerning the misuse of funds.

Analysis of Value Added Tax Productivity in Kenya

One of the critical components of Sustainable Development Goals is to strengthen domestic resource mobilization. The target is to have domestic resources contributing at least 75 percent to 90 percent of the financing required to achieve Agenda 2063 (AU, 2015). In an effort to enhance domestic resource mobilization in Kenya, great emphasis has been placed on Value Added Tax whereby the tax authority endeavors to enhance the contribution of VAT collections to GDP from a mean of 6 per cent to 9 percent of GDP. The study sought to estimate the productivity of VAT over the period 1973-2016 using data collected from Kenya National Bureau of Statistics and Kenya Revenue Authority’s database. OLS method was adopted to estimate buoyancy of VAT while divisia index approach was adopted to estimate elasticity of VAT. The study found that, the VAT system was buoyant with a value greater than one while the elasticity was 0.79 which was less than one implying VAT system was inelastic. The study concluded that the tax reforms adopted during the study period had impacted positively on VAT performance hence the buoyancy value greater than one. Therefore, to mobilize more revenue from VAT, reforms focusing on enhancing VAT compliance and expanding tax base should be emphasised.

Immunization costs, from evidence to policy: Findings from a nationally representative costing study and policy translation effort in Tanzania

IntroductionInformation on the costs of routine immunization programs is needed for budgeting, planning, and domestic resource mobilization. This information is particularly important for countries such as Tanzania that are preparing to transition out of support from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. This study aimed to estimate the total and unit costs for of child immunization in Tanzania from July 2016 to June 2017 and make this evidence available to key stakeholders. MethodsWe used an ingredients-based approach to collect routine immunization cost data from the facility, district, regional, and national levels. We collected data on the cost of vaccines as well as non-vaccine delivery costs. We estimated total and unit costs from a provider perspective for each level and overall, and examined how costs varied by delivery strategy, geographic area, and facility-level service delivery volume. An evidence-to-policy plan identified key opportunities and stakeholders to target to facilitate the use of results. ResultsThe total annual economic cost of the immunization program, inclusive of vaccines, was estimated to be US$138 million (95% CI: 133, 144), or $4.32 ($3.72, $4.98) per dose. The delivery costs made up $45 million (38, 52), or $1.38 (1.06, 1.70) per dose. The costs of facility-based delivery were similar in urban and rural areas, but the costs of outreach delivery were higher in rural areas than in urban areas. The facility-level delivery cost per dose decreased with the facility service delivery volume. DiscussionWe estimated the costs of the routine immunization program in Tanzania, where no immunization costing study had been conducted for five years. These estimates can inform the program’s budgeting and planning as Tanzania prepares to transition out of Gavi support. Next steps for evidence-to-policy translation have been identified, including technical support requirements for policy advocacy and planning.

Sustainable development goals and taxation in Nigeria

The pursuit of developmental objectives especially those related to human/social welfare like the SDGs is often hampered by funding constraints. Hence domestic resource mobilisation is critical to sustenance of developmental programmes. A key message of SDG 17 is that partnership between governments and the private sector is needed to mobilise private resources to deliver the SDGs. This paper contends that one way this partnership can be actualised in Nigeria is through the principles of taxation considering the strong relationship between taxation and development. It recommends that developing a strong tax system is necessary to sustain the funding of SDGs.

Trade misinvoicing effects on tax revenue in sub‐Saharan Africa: The role of tax holidays and regulatory quality

AbstractThe first target of Goal 17 of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) emphasizes the need to strengthen domestic resource mobilization and improve revenue collection. However, the average tax‐to‐GDP ratio is much lower than the optimal threshold required to finance development. Meanwhile, Africa is losing a significant amount of its capital through illicit financial flows, primarily driven by trade misinvoicing, but at the same time offering fiscal incentives and improving governance to create an environment for increased domestic revenue. Using random and fixed effects models, the study examines the tax revenue effects of trade misinvoicing, and further examines the extent to which tax holidays and regulatory quality dilute or deepen the revenue effects of trade misinvoicing for 13 African countries over the period 2000 to 2015. The results suggest that trade misinvoicing reduces tax revenue. While tax holiday strengthens the effect of trade misinvoicing, regulatory quality dilutes the effect of trade misinvoicing on tax revenue. The study, therefore, recommends that the governments of SSA should promote good governance, reduce trade misinvoicing and review existing tax incentives as critical components of the ongoing efforts to increase domestic resource mobilization for development.

The Role of Development Aid in Agriculture in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa: A Panel Vector Autoregression Analysis

This paper assessed the impact of foreign aid on agricultural productivity and growth in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), using panel vector autoregressive methods. The results show a significant unidirectional causality from agricultural growth to foreign aid and thus confirming the theoretical dispositions of the developmental role of foreign aid. However, instead of complementing domestic resources in this regard, the results showed that foreign aid in the sector substitutes government financing, which effectively reduces its effectiveness. A mismatch in government resources and aid allocations to a sub-sector erodes the synergy that should typically exist between donor aid and government expenditure in a sector. A policy shift towards Result-Based (Aid on Delivery) approaches in aid disbursements will be critical to eliminating fungible resources. Misalignment of aid allocations that are inconsistent with the relative importance of subsectors in the sectoral development goals further undermines the potency of aid. A better understanding of the contribution of the various sub-sectors to the overall growth of the agriculture sector will be crucial for equitable resource allocation and enhanced aid effectiveness. Moreover, the higher impact of domestic resources compared to foreign aid calls for policies to increase domestic resource mobilization and a broader focus on reducing aid dependency.

Egypt Within the Sustainable Development Goals One and Two of the United Nations: Overview and Recommendations Thereof

The objective of this article is to (1) posit indicators to measure the performance of Egypt in achieving United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals one, to end poverty in all its forms and two, zero hunger, and (2) develop policy recommendations with regards to reducing poverty. Research methods include a systematic macro-process, general to narrow analysis, offering indicators and policy recommendations for governments to follow in achieving the sustainable development goals on poverty. The article is significant since it links between macroeconomics of poverty, an analysis of the quality and quantity of research conducted on the topic, the poor economics individual perspective, examples of pre and post-covid sustainable development goals one and two actual performance. Conclusions convey that poverty alleviation requires a combined public, private, and institutional collaboration to enhance the poor community capacity building, domestic resource mobilization techniques, efficient resource allocation and an awareness of the importance of implementing the sustainable development goals.

Growth Narrative of Bangladesh Economy

Bangladesh has made impressive progress and undergone structural changes over the last five decades despite resource constraints and various social and political challenges. However, while in the long-term, its economic growth is remarkable, the short-term performance is somewhat disappointing. Moreover, while the average and aggregate numbers paint an inspiring image, disaggregated indicators do not often support the apparent good health of the economy. This paper brings out two issues: (i) what have been the growth drivers of Bangladesh economy, and (ii) what have been the outcomes of growth. It also makes a number of recommendations for maintaining, expediting and sustaining the growth momentum. The article recommends for more employment generation in the formal sector, reduction of inequality, mobilization of higher domestic resources, energizing private investment, and above all, ensuring good governance. The paper emphasizes on continuous institutional reforms to improve the quality of growth and ensure distributional justice in Bangladesh.

Tax Revenue Mobilization in Sub-Saharan Africa: Does political Legitimacy Matters?

The mobilization of substantial domestic resources is required to finance human and physical capital in order to achieve the sustainable development goals. In developing countries like those of Sub-Saharan Africa, the mobilization of tax revenues remains a great challenge. In this context, identifying the determinants of fiscal capacity remains crucial to guide the adoption of appropriate fiscal reforms. Therefore, as part of the wave of literature on the institutional and political determinants of fiscal capacity, this article explores the effect of political legitimacy on tax revenues in a sample of 41 SSA countries over the period 1996-2017. The system GMM in two steps estimator is used for empirical investigation. The result shows that tax revenue increases with political legitimacy. This result suggests that political legitimization in SSA remains crucial to mobilize more resources in order to adequately finance the development.

Domestic Resource Mobilization and Under-Five Mortality in Nigeria

This study considered domestic resource mobilisation and allocation to healthcare service delivery due to the high rate of infant deaths in Nigeria. Value addition in the agricultural sector is captured as a major source of revenue which could be channelled towards increased government expenditure in healthcare. As such, the paper applies vector error correction technique on yearly data for the period 1981 to 2015. It investigates the long-run relationship and short-run dynamics between under-five mortality on the one hand, with female literacy, agricultural productivity, tax revenue, and gross capital formation on the other hand. Outcome of the study indicates, from a long run perspective, under-five mortality is positively related to tax revenue, female literacy rate and gross capital formation. However, there is a negative relationship between under-5 mortality and agricultural productivity. Moreover, as Nigeria diversifies away from crude oil towards agriculture, increased productivity and tax revenues could be channelled towards better health outcomes and rural transformation. Furthermore, enhanced management of tax and better budgeting towards the agricultural sector is recommended. In addition, infrastructure development, agro-allied investments will ensure reduction in agricultural waste and supply costs. The outcomes portend significant relevance for meeting Sustainable Development Goals 2, 3, 4, & 10.

Understanding health spending for SDG 3

The present Article and previous publications from the Global Burden of Disease Health Financing Collaborator Network clearly indicate the diminishing importance of development assistance for health (DAH) for financing services at the country level, even for disease areas commonly perceived as highly dependent on DAH 1,3,4 The projections to 2030 indicate that DAH will continue to be important in some low-income countries at the end of the SDG period, but this finding is more a consequence of the lack of growth in domestic spending than an effect of increasing DAH Vlad Sokhin/Panos Pictures In the present Article, the authors also present funding estimates for specifically relevant areas for SDG3—ie, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and universal health coverage 1 Although these estimates might be useful for a global dialogue around how SDGs are prioritised in DAH, the approach is less relevant for increased understanding of, and improved decision making in, the health sector of countries included in the study [ ]the Article does not take a health systems approach to the data

Can foreign aid enhance domestic resource mobilisation in Nigeria?

ABSTRACT The role of foreign aid in enhancing economic growth in aid-recipient countries remains much debated. This paper takes an empirical perspective and focusing on non-resource tax revenues in Nigeria, examines whether foreign aid does enhance public domestic resource mobilisation (DRM), with a specific focus on tax revenue mobilisation. Using grants and loans, for the 1981–2015 period, the results indicate that foreign aid in the form of grants can be an effective tool for enhancing tax revenue mobilisation in the long-run. The results suggest that by including measures to ensure adherence to prescripts of greater accountability, foreign aid in the form of grants helps enhance tax revenue compared to loans whose repayments has the potential for policies that may have a negative impact on tax revenues.

Through service providers\u2019 eyes: health systems factors affecting implementation of tuberculosis control in Enugu State, South-Eastern Nigeria

BackgroundWell-functioning health systems are essential to achieving global and national tuberculosis (TB) control targets. This study examined health system factors affecting implementation of TB control programme from the perspectives of service providers.MethodsThe study was conducted in Enugu State, South-eastern Nigeria using qualitative, cross-sectional design involving 23 TB service providers (13 district TB supervisors and 10 facility TB focal persons). Data were collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews using a health system dynamic framework and analysed thematically.ResultsStewardship from National TB Control Programme (NTP) improved governance of TB control, but stewardship from local government was weak. Government spending on TB control was inadequate, whereas donors fund TB control. Poor human resources management practices hindered TB service delivery. TB service providers have poor capacity for data management because changes in recording and reporting tools were not matched with training of service providers. Drugs and other supplies to TB treatment centres were interrupted despite the use of a logistics agency. Poor integration of TB into general health services, weak laboratory capacity, withdrawal of subsidies to community volunteers and patent medicine vendors, poorly funded patient tracking systems, and ineffectual TB/HIV collaboration resulted in weak organisation of TB service delivery.ConclusionHealth systems strengthening for TB control service must focus on effective oversight from NTP and local health system; predictable domestic resource mobilisation through budgets and social health insurance; training and incentives to attract and retain TB service providers; effective supply and TB drug management; and improvements in organization of service delivery.

Public Financial Management Perspectives on Health Sector Financing and Resource Allocation in Ethiopia

In this paper, we discuss Ethiopia’s approach to health delivery, trends in health financing trends, focusing on the financing arrangements and expenditure management systems through which health funding is allocated from various internal and external sources. The paper reviews Ethiopia’s public financial management system to identify challenges and opportunities to improve domestic resource mobilization for health and resource allocation within the health sector. With the imminent transition away from external donor support that Ethiopia faces due to economic growth, the paper explores the sources of fiscal space for health in Ethiopia to sustain progress in the health sector through a deep dive of the sources of health financing through tax and non-tax revenues, additional borrowing, future aid prospects, and better fiscal discipline and expenditure efficiency.

Comparing Sustainable Development Aid and Need

The proper allocation of foreign aid is likely to be of critical importance to its efficacy. In this paper, I present an analysis to test the hypothesis that official development assistance is allocated based on need in terms of deficit on sustainable development indicators. Within the framework of sustainable development priorities, I analyze data from over a hundred countries from 2012-2017 for multilateral and bilateral disbursements and 26 indicators. Using a novel mismatch index, I identify average misallocations of about 2% of the world total for countries, representing dozens of billions of dollars in aggregate, and observe little change after the 2015 enactment of the SDGs. I also check Spearman rank coefficient measures which indicate a poor fit, especially for indicators new to the SDG agenda. In regression analysis, I find a positive relation between aid and need and that the quality of institutions and domestic resource mobilization is associated with aid while democracy is not. Finally, I identify and discuss disproportionate nations, mainly large population and middle-income nations. I offer several explanations and potential extensions.