GET - Gender Equality in Taxation

The integration of a gender perspective in public affairs has become a major challenge for governments around the world. Taxation, as an essential lever for fair and equitable development, allows us to approach economic and social justice from the perspective of gender inequalities. 

In this respect, it appears that fiscal policy measures and the way they are applied can have a significant impact on equal opportunities for women and men as well as on their financial capacity. Thus, tax and customs systems can be vectors of gender inequality. Methodologies to identify and reduce these inequalities are still emerging and struggling to be supported by evidence, where they exist.

At the international level, a great deal of work is being carried out on these issues by organisations, research institutions or agencies such as the Network of Tax Organisations (NTO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) or the World Customs Organization (WCO). 

This work has two objectives:

• to improve the understanding and knowledge of the link between taxation and gender equality,
• to accompany countries in taking these issues into account in their policies and support data collection with a view to implement fairer tax reforms.

In this context, the French government finances the GET project to foster the embedding of a gender equity culture in domestic resource mobilization projects and policies. 

The objective of the GET project is to strengthen actions aimed at reducing inequalities within the policies, structures and services of tax and customs administrations in West and Central Africa.

GET deploys a multidimensional strategy to promote an integrated gender approach in the mobilization of national resources. 

The interventions are based on three pillars:

1 - A technical assistance facility

The facility is aimed at central tax and customs administrations, ministries of finance, local authorities responsible for collecting local taxes and fees, as well as regional bodies in West and Central Africa. 

There is a defined process for submitting a request to the facility. This mechanism is flexible and adapts to the specific needs of beneficiaries.

2 - Support for research on taxation and gender

The project is funding a PhD thesis that studies gender inequalities in African tax systems at the Institute of Development Studies. This research support is based on the belief that these complex and emerging issues require an objective approach and arguments based on knowledge and in-depth analysis of the interactions between tax policies and inequalities between men and women. The researcher is also mobilized as a researcher in the framework of the project, which her work as this one feeds her research.

The project also funds the coordination of a Community of Practice Tax and Gender (CoP) which brings together researchers from diverse backgrounds conducting research at the intersection of gender equality issues and tax systems.

3 – Support for civil society organisations to promote the structuring and visibility of their advocacy

The project supports the development and structuring of advocacy for a better integration of gender inequalities in the development of public policies related to taxation and encourages networking of organisations working in this area.

This support to civil society takes many forms: 

• awareness raising, training,
• production of barometers of tax justice,
• accompaniment of local associations of women entrepreneurs etc. 

The project partnered with Oxfam and Tax Justice Network Africa (TJNA), multiple local CSOs, for one year to advance the Fair Tax Monitor (FTM) gender methodology and produce three national reports – in Benin, Cameroon and Senegal – exclusively focused on the intersection of taxation and gender.