Developing a Regional Policy Model on Fiscal Justice for Women and Girls in Africa

The Covid-19 pandemic had devastating effects on the African Continent exposing their feeble health and social welfare systems, with 52% of its citizens lacking access to healthcare and 83% lacking access to social protection and most workers having no formal job and very limited labour rights. African governments made valiant attempts to respond to COVID-19, but most lacked sufficient resources to shoulder the impact of Covid-19. Low- income countries spent only 3.1% of GDP on COVID-19 response and emerging markets 5.3% of GDP, compared with 19.1% for OECD economies. Much of this went towards healthcare and social protection, but most African governments are now phasing out these measures, leaving no long-term increases in healthcare or social protection spending to fight future pandemics. In this COVID-19 recovery period Africa faces huge challenges to achieve fiscal justice and to reduce social and economic inequality. In terms of fiscal inequality most African countries face both explicit and implicit gender biases. Explicit gender biases are in form of tax provisions in the law, regulations, or practices that are outright discriminatory and mostly rooted in patriarchal traditions. Implicit gender biases arise where tax structures appear to treat men and women equally, but have an unequal impact because of, for instance, differences in income or ownership patterns between men and women.

To understand the depth of tax related gender inequalities in the context of Covid-19 and beyond, Oxfam initiated the Fair Tax Monitor (FTM) research in Zambia and Uganda as part of its Fiscal Justice for Women and Girls in Africa Project (FJWG) co-funded by the European Union and coordinated by the African Women Development and Communications Network (FEMNET) at a regional level. The objective of these two FTM reports is to generate credible evidence for influencing pro-poor gendered fiscal advocacy work and policy reform in Uganda and Zambia and in Af rica at large. Specifically, the studies focused on

• Examining current tax systems and assess their fairness from a gender perspective.
• Identifying the main bottlenecks in tax system
• Generate recommendations for policy influencing

The two reports reveal bottlenecks in the Zambia’s and Uganda’s tax systems in several areas including:

• Tax distribution
• Revenue generation and Illicit financial flows
• Tax competition and corporate incentives
• Tax administration, Government spending
• Transparency and accountability

The Assignment

Oxfam Pan Africa would like to use the findings of the reports to generate a fiscal policy model that would be used to influence African governments and Regional African for a (AU and RECs). The specific objective of the assignment is to develop a model for regional fiscal policy for improved financing of gender responsive public services based on the outcome of the FTM research in Uganda and Zambia. The proposal will be used by Oxfam in its partners for advocacy with African governments, the African Union and Regional Economic Communities amongst others. Specifically, the consultant will:

• Review the Uganda and Zambia FTM reports and recommendations and generate background and justification to the policy
• Do a document review on gender and tax in Africa to determine the relevance of the findings of the two reports to the broader African context to be included in the policy proposal
• Develop a policy proposal for fiscal justice for women and girls
• Facilitate a workshop to generate consensus on the proposal
• Suggest policy influencing targets, potential allies and influencing spaces.
• Refer to the study reports of Gendered Impact on COVID 19 on Livelihoods in Arica Case studies can be referenced as they have key findings on fiscal and macroeconomics policies specifically case studies from Zambia, South Africa, Ethiopia, and Kenya.
• Refer to the recently approved AU of the protocol on Social protection and Safety Nets

Key Deliverables

The successful consultant(s) will be expected to deliver the following:

• An inception report detailing the approach to the assignment
• A draft policy proposal
• Facilitate a workshop to generate consensus on the fiscal policy proposal
• A final policy proposal

Consultant specifications

Oxfam Pan African Program is looking for a qualified and experienced consultant, or team of consultants with a background in tax justice and experience in economic, gendered social policy development and influencing; and demonstrated capacity to undertake the type of services sought within the indicated timeline.

Duration

The assignment is estimated for 21 working days around June 2022 including 3 workshop days.

Applications

Interested candidates are invited to submit the following application documents:

• A copy of the CV of the consultant/s who will be assigned to conduct the work including two referees to whom similar services were provided
• A technical proposal (max 3 pages- excluding CVs) detailing: Consultants’ relevant experience and their approach to the assignment, including what literature will be reviewed, what organisations and persons will be interviewed and a draft outline of the fiscal policy proposal.
• A financial proposal outlining the exact number of days per deliverable and daily rate excluding the cost of the workshop (which will be organized by Oxfam and partners).
• Availability and financial considerations.
• A sample of relevant reports or publications or hyperlinks were available.