Briefing Paper

Taxation As a Domestic Resource Mobilisation Tool for Financing Development in Sub Saharan Africa

“The global financial crisis exposed the vulnerability of developing countries for their reliance on foreign aid resources for their development agenda. The crisis resulted in the dwindling of resources for the countries advancing aid and subsequently affected the flow of development finance to the recipient country. In order to meet the socio-economic needs of the citizens, national governments resorted to domestic resources mobilisation. Mobilising domestic resources as a means for financing development has thus become an important development issue, especially through taxation. This brief looks at the tax systems for Lesotho, Mozambique and Zimbabwe amid the realisation of the growing role and impact of tax in the development agenda. The brief is based on the three studies commissioned by AFRODAD on “What has tax got to do with Development” in the Sub Saharan Africa countries of Lesotho (2012), Mozambique (2011) and Zimbabwe (2011).”