NORGLOBAL2-Norge - global partner

Questions related to illegal capital flight, taxation, and the utilisation of natural resources are some of the most important in the contemporary development debate. NUPI coordinates the TaxCapDev Network together with CMI, and this network brings together Norwegian researchers and experts. The network's purpose is to strengthen knowledge dissemination between the environments that the network represents, and Norwegian and international decision makers. The network also contributes to increased collaboration between researchers from the North and South and helps to promote South-South cooperation within this field of research. In the spring of 2017, the original TaxCapDev-network entered a new phase, TaxCapDev II. This is a continuation of the previous network, but now Tax Justice Network Norway is also included in the network. In October 2017 the network was also strengthened with a post-doc Merima Ali who works specifically with the South component of the network. The network is working on dissemination and sharing of research results, as well as bringing researchers, decision makers and activists together to discuss research and improve policy development in this important field. To achieve these goals, the network arranges both smaller meetings and seminars. Larger events like for example the Bergen conference 20-22 November 2016 - Lifting the veil of secrecy: tax haven, capital flight and developing countries. This conference was organised in cooperation with CMI and NHH, and over 100 researchers and activists from Norway, Europe, the United States and Africa participated. The network also actively participates in the public debate through events such as the event at Arendalsuka: 2017 Tax and capital flight. Will Norway live up to its ambitions? Here a panel consisting of Morten Bøås (NUPI), Odd-Helge Fjeldstad (CMI), Sigrid Klæboe Jacobsen (Tax Justice Network Norway), Olav Lundestøl (CMI), Snorre Valen (SV), Truls Wickholm (AP) and Heidi Nordby Lunde (Høyre) discussed different policy choices in the debate on tax and development. The network aims to be policy-relevant, and one proof of our success in this regard is the report written by Odd-Helge Fjeldstad, Morten Bøås, Julie Brun Bjørkheim and Frida Margrethe Kvamme, 2018, Building Tax Systems in Fragile States: Challenges, Achievements and Policy Recommendations. This report was written for UD/Norad, and it was presented at a well-attended seminar in Oslo I June 2018 that also was attended by the Minister for Development Cooperation, Nicolai Astrup. During the current reporting period 2018-19, the main activity of the network was a large international conference on tax and fragile states that took place in Oslo 7th to 9th november 2018. One direct outcome of this was a report to the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Domestic Resource Mobilisation co-authored by Morten Bøås, Odd-Helge Fjeldstad, Julie Brun Bjørkheim and Frida Kvamme. This report was presented to the MFA, NORAD, Norwegian Tax Authorities and the Ministry of Finance in December 2018. In 2019, the network has arranged several smaller meetings and seminars, and once more the network was present at Arendalsuka with an arrangement that included participation from NORAD and the Norwegian Tax Authorities. In 2020 the activities of the network were just affected by Covid-19 as anybody else. Our work and activities therefore had to turn to various electronic formats. We intensified our work with the networks electronic newsletter that started to come out on a monthly basis. We produced more podcasts, among others about the Addis Tax Initiative and a series that we called the Pandemic Conversations between Norwegian researchers in the network and some of their African colleagues. These conversations dealt with how the economic consequences of Covid-19 affected daily life in Nigeria, Senegal and Tanzania, and the effects this would have on domestic resource mobilisation. The network also took its seminar activities online through the webinar series Tax for Development. 10 webinars were organised and participants included Norwegian and international researchers, representatives for Norwegian and African tax authorities, and World Bank and IMF staff members that works on issues concerning taxation. Through these initiatives the network has succeeded in establishing tax as a key item in Norwegian and international debates about development and state building.

The network activities, ranging from physical seminars, webinars, podcasts, reports and other dissemination activities, has contributed to placing tax as an issue firmly on the Norwegian and international development and state-building agenda. Examples include the events with Norwegian policymakers arranged on Arendalsuka and the webinar series Tax for Development that has brought together various research environments, representatives from national tax authorities, and staff members from international organisations as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. New African partners has been brought into the network and particular emphasis has been placed on making the network a hub for collaboration and conversation between researchers from anglophone and francophone African countries. These activities have ensured that the network is well placed to enter the new phase that started 1 June 2021.

The second phase of the TaxCapDev network aims to consolidate the nexus established between the five research teams funded by the Norwegian Research Council beyond the period of the individual projects. This will ensure that the researchers and this network can continue to strenghten the dissemination, dialogue and exchange of research to relevant stakeholders in Norway and abroad. In particular, the aim is to extend the network to the international research community, including institutions and relevant actors in developing countries, mainly in Africa as network members. To achieve these objectives, the second phase of the network will be organised as an axis between NUPI (Research Professor Morten Bøås) and CMI (Professor Odd-Helge Fjeldstad), with satellites to the Norwegian School of Economics (Professor Guttorm Schjelderup), the University of Oslo (Professor emeritus Frederik Zimmer), and the Tax Justice Network Norway. The new funding applied for will enable us to increase the quality of the activities already planned for in SkattJakt I. It will strengthen NUPIs hub function through hiring administrative assistance to maintain the network website on a weekly basis and to assist with seminars, guest researcher visits, circulate policy briefs, and the liaison with important Norwegian stakeholder environments. The network will have more funding available to include Southern-based actors as network members and to strengthen their participation at panels in international conferences together with Norwegian researchers. We will arrange one large international conference in Oslo in 2018 on taxation and fragile states, and a joint CMI/NUPI conference in 2020. The post-doc position to be shared between NUPI and CMI will increase the synergies between the ongoing TaxCapDev projects.