1e CRAFT stakeholders meeting Middle East to support movement building around tax justice work in the Middle East: 10 th and 11 th of June 2013 Venue: Safir Hotel Cairo, Egypt Concept Note Rationale Taxation is at the heart of the social contract between citizens and their government: citizens pay taxes and government provides services in return. Poor governance and accountability increases the risk of corruption and mismanagement, limiting the development bonus of tax income. As a result, inequality increases and the most fundamental human rights cannot be guaranteed, such as the right to food, health or education. Tax revenues in developing countries fall short of what realistically could be obtained when analysing their actual productive potential. On average, 18% of GDP comes from tax revenue in African countries compared to an average of 38% in Western European countries. Broadly, tax policies in developing countries are biased towards consumption and wage taxes which impose a higher tax burden on poorer households and formal sector employees. Civil participation in taxation not only contributes to state-building, important for sustainable development, but also strengthens state capacity, central in sustaining state legitimacy. Representation in taxation requires that civil society actors have the necessary capacity to understand and analyse tax issues. Currently there is still a substantial lack of capacity and insight of civil society into the technicalfiscal domain of a country s tax system. Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have expressed a need for further capacity building in the domain of tax advocacy. Middle Eastern context The recent Arab Uprisings and Revolutions have uncovered layers of injustices that populations in different Middle Eastern countries have suffered from for decades. On the social and economic front, the inadequate public spending on basic services, such as education, health, housing, water and sanitation, have caused structural inequalities in people s access to their basic rights. That s where the
large income inequalities automatically translated into inequality in the access to adequate housing, basic health services and quality education. The increasing poverty rates that accompanied the increasing inflation rates, and the increase in the prices of food and services, targeted the already impoverished segments of the Middle Eastern populations, making them unable to survive, let alone enjoy an adequate standard of living. The flipside of the poor government expenditures is the poor government revenue. Not only do many Middle Eastern countries collect very little revenue from taxation, but the tax revenue collected is usually collected at the cost of the poor or the lower-income citizens. After all, it is not Africa alone that suffers from a race to the bottom in an attempt to attract Foreign Direct Investment, several Middle Easter countries exempt the richer segments of their societies from tax burdens, offers them subsidies and tax breaks in an attempt to attract more investment and encourage businesses. And yet, the so-called countries of the Arab Spring remain to follow the same regressive tax policies, where the investors are favored at the cost of the rest of the population. In Egypt, for instance, postrevolution tax reforms targeted an increase in the regressive General Sales tax on important food items, while the tax reforms failed to tax capital gains, or to progressively increase taxation on higher incomes and corporations. The challenges of collecting enough tax revenue, and of making taxation progressive by spreading the burden of taxation progressively with increasing incomes, remain largely undisputed and unchallenged in the Middle East. Therefore, it is of utmost importance for civil society organizations, poverty fighters, human rights defenders and other stakeholders to work together in one network towards achieving tax justice. Objective The purpose of the stakeholders meeting is to support movement building in the Middle East around tax justice, link and learn and reach an understanding about a way forward, possibly agree on a draft concept note to raise funding for potential joint work in the Middle East. This Middle Eastern stakeholder meeting aims at bringing together members from the Tax Justice Network-Africa (TJN-A), ECESR and Oxfam who have been working collectively on the CRAFT project (Capacity for Research and Advocacy for Fair Taxation), with potential Middle Eastern Partners from Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt. The Middle Eastern partners, who are exploring and strategizing around the first steps towards potentially initializing a network of tax justice in the Middle East, have expressed a need to link and learn more about the CRAFT project that is successfully implemented in several African and Asian countries, including Senegal, Mali, Uganda, Bangladesh Ghana, Nigeria and Egypt. The Middle Eastern partners will learn from CRAFT s experience, while the CRAFT project will support movement building around tax justice in the Middle East. Partners: - Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND) - The Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights (ECESR) - Tax Justice Network-Africa (TJN-A) - Oxfam Support: This meeting and the project in general is supported by the International Tax Compact (ITC). Partners in the Middle East: - Center for Social and Economic Policies, Palestine - Lebanese Transparency Association, Lebanon
- Independent researcher, Morocco - Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights, Tunisia - Others to be proposed by Oxfam Novib Maghreb office Other CRAFT partners (maybe one or two will be present at the 10 & 11 June): - Southern and Eastern African Trade, Information and Negotiations Institute (SEATINI), Uganda - Forum Civil (FC) Senegal - Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Nigeria - Coalition Publiez Ce Que Vous Payez (PCQVP), Mali - SUPRO, Bangladesh - Ghana Integrity Initiative, Ghana Expectations The idea is that participants share what they want to learn from activities other organisations have undertaken or are undertaking on tax justice, as well as to share experiences, build alliances, best practices, and flesh out the details of how a CRAFT project for the Middle East could look like. On the part of the organizers, the expectation of TJN-A, ECESR and Oxfam Novib are: Clarity on what we aspire at regional level when it comes to tax work; Outlining the strategies we can implement: in research, policy advocacy, capacity building, civic education, alliance building and networking; Initial agreement on potential operational modalities (regarding communication, fund raising, management and roles and responsibilities) to be laid down in a concept note. Draft Programme of the meeting could broadly look as follows (to be detailed out further): Day 1: Presenting existing tax work for sharing and learning - Presentation on history and development of TJN-A: challenges and achievements - History of CRAFT, why Oxfam Novib started working on this issue, what can be the role of the civil society on tax issues, what have been the main achievements so far? - Presentation of baseline studies of Middle Eastern partners from: Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt. - Presentation of CRAFT project website Film: The tax free tour, VPRO Backlight Day 2: focus on strategizing in the Middle East, nothing is fixed in stone yet, the idea is to at least reach understanding about a joint concept note to link, learn and share for tax work together. - Recap of discussions of day 1 - What are the specific needs of the partners in the Middle East? - Discussion and decision on way forward, potentially with concept note Background: The Capacity for Research and Advocacy for Fair Taxation (CRAFT) project By enhancing civil society s knowledge, research, alliances and advocacy capacity, an agenda for change will trigger campaigns and mobilize civil and public pressure to make tax fair. CSOs need to be supported to build networks and alliances to raise awareness, engage into policy advocacy and create linkages between national activities, regional work and global campaigns. When citizens become more aware of
their rights and responsibilities as tax payers, public scrutiny over revenue collection and allocation increases. Civil society has several means to promote fair and pro-poor tax systems. It can provide public forums (round tables) for informed discussions and reinforced public scrutiny of tax governance; it can promote a national dialogue on the desirability of more progressive taxation and engage in civic education and popular mobilization to increase willingness to pay taxes. Then, civil society is well positioned to demand transparency on who pays how much tax. With the start of the CRAFT project in January 2012, a global consortium is engaged in building the research and advocacy capacity of civil society for fair taxation in several targeted countries. In doing so, we proactively seek the collaboration and cooperation of Tax Authorities and Ministries of Finance in these countries. CRAFT increasingly provides a platform for dialogue between varieties of stakeholders realizing they have a common interest: raising and using taxes in their country in a fair way. Members of Parliaments and even a Minister from Uganda and Bangladesh have been among our guests in CRAFT meetings. The consortium that implements CRAFT and signed an MoU in July in Entebbe, consists of Tax Justice Network-Africa, SEATINI Uganda, SUPRO Bangladesh, PCQVP Mali, ECESR Egypt, CISLAC Nigeria, Forum Civil Senegal, the Ghana Integrity Initiative and Oxfam Novib. So far the project has been supported by the International Tax Compact (ITC), the European Union and Oxfam Novib public funding. Our target is to increase impact and scope of CRAFT by raising our budget to 1.5 2 million annually. To date, stakeholders have held four stakeholder and one global training meeting (in Nairobi in January 2011, in Dakar in February 2011, in Mombasa in December 2011, Entebbe in July 2012 and Tunis in March 2013 and training in Nairobi in November 2012) to discuss the best ways to develop the project, fundraise for it and create a conducive environment for it at national, regional and global level. Since the 3 rd stakeholders meeting in Mombasa, an overall action plan for 2012 was finalized. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the implementation phase discussed during the 3 rd meeting was also finalized and signed in Entebbe.
Program: Day 1 : June 10th, 2013 9:30-10:00 Registration of Participants 10:00-11:00 Welcome, Opening Remarks, and Presentation of the program for the two days ECESR, Alvin Mosioma, Paul Groenewegen 11:00-11 :30 Short Presentation of Participants and Organizations 11 :30-12 :00 Coffee Break 12 :00-12 :30 Presentation on history and development of TJN-A: challenges and achievements 12 :30-13 :00 The Craft Project: Oxfam Novib s work, challenges and achievements Alvin Mosioma Paul Groenewegen The CRAFT project website 13 :00-14 :00 ANND s Tax Justice Project Ziad AbdelSamad, ANND 14 :00-15 :00 Country findings (10 min presentations) : 1. Lebanon 2. Palestine 3. Jordan 4. Morocco 15 :00-16 :00 Lunch 16 :00-16 :30 Other Experiences and ECESR s experience in Egypt 16 :30-17 :00 Panel : Common Themes and Challenges in the MENA region Firas Jaber, Iyad ELRIyahi, Jamal Bin Dahman, Hassan Sherry Heba Khalil, Nadeem Mansour Firas Jaber, Ziad Abdelsamad, Heba Khalil, Paul Groenewegen 17 :00-17 :30 Coffee Break 17 :30-19 :00 Film Screening : the Tax Free Tour
Day 2: June 11 th 9:30-10:00 Recap of first day, and activities for second day 10:00-10 :30 Useful strategies in tax advocacy: the CRAFT experience: Training, Research, Advocacy, alliances, networking, civic education, etc. Paul Groenewegen 10 :30-11 :30 Research and Advocacy beyond the baseline studies in the MENA region Hassan Sherry, Firas Jaber 11 :30-12 :00 Coffee Break 12 :00-13 :00 What are the specific needs for the MENA region partners, and what do we aspire for for the region (discussion) 13 :00-14 :00 Potential operational strategies : networking, communication, roles and responsibilities, fundraising Moderator : Nadeem Mansour Alvin Mosioma 14 :00-15 :00 Lunch 15 :00-16 :00 Draft concept note based on discussions : amendments and discussion Heba Khalil, Hassan Sherry 16 :00-17 :00 Way forward and Closing Remarks