More financing, including taxes, is needed to reach the Sustainable Development Goals. At the Addis Ababa conference 2015 the Addis Tax Initiative was launched, in which donors were asked to double their technical assistance to taxation by 2020. This commitment has been accepted by Sweden.
This is an overview of the Swedish experience of aid to taxation, which has mainly been channelled through the Swedish Tax Agency, STA. Project documents, reports and evaluations have been assessed using the DAC evaluation criteria: relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability.
Main findings
- The STA projects are generally very relevant.
- Factors positive to reaching the objectives have been for example strong ownership, mutual trust, good planning, clear objectives, long-term advisors and sufficient time for preparation and implementation.
- Long-term changes caused by for example the project in Soth Africa were considerable. Strong ownership in both institutions and a ten-year project period gave momentum of change.
- The method normally used by STA is conducive to sustainability of project results.
Recommendations
- The STA is recommended to give more attention in the preparation phase to an analysis of the institutional and political environment and to identify a theory of change.
- Sida is recommended to finance more external evaluations of tax projects implemented by STA for mutual learning.
- Sida is recommended to grant financing to STA (and similar authorities) for “sustainability funds” to enable continued small-scale support to ensure sustainability of project results.
Author
Klas Markensten