Tax Justice Network Africa (TJNA)

Description What is done in the programme or project and why, what results are pursued, who benefits from the activities and who are involved in the implementation.

Tax Justice Network Africa is the leading Pan-African civil society research and advocacy organisation focusing on Taxation and development (T4D). TJNA comprises a network of 31 African CSOs within all sub-regions of Africa. TJNA is today a completely independent African CSO-network but still maintains a good cooperation with its global 'parent', the Tax Justice Network (TJN). The London-based TJN helped establish the African network in 2007. MFA-Finland has good experiences of cooperating with and providing funding to the global TJN for workshops in Finland and in Tanzania. The 20+ staff of the TJNA Nairobi Secretariat collaborate closely with member organisations and other partners across Africa to curb Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) and promote progressive taxation systems. TJNA advocates for pro-poor tax policies and the strengthening of tax systems to promote Domestic Resource Mobilisation (DRM). The TJNA Mission is "to spearhead tax justice in Africa's development by enabling citizens and institutions to promote equitable tax systems through research, capacity-building and policy influencing". The TJNA provides the key platform where African researchers, CSOs, policy makers and inverstigative media can co-operate and increase synergies in their battle against illicit financial flows, tax evasion, tax competition and other harmful tax policies and practices. The four thematic areas of TJNA work are: (1) Tax and international financial architecture; (2) Tax and investments; (3) Tax and extractives; (4) Tax and inequalities. The Pan-African Conference (PAC) on IFFs and Taxation is the annual 'Flagship event' organised by the TJNA. In addition, it runs research and capacity development activities in African countries, and hosts the Africa Media Tax Training, African Parliamentary Network on IFFs, CSO campaign 'Stop the Bleeding' on IFFs, the African Tax Academy with a wide variety of tax justice stakeholders including the Youth for Tax Justice movement, FEMNET Africa, Inter University Tax Justice Network, trade unions, and academia. TJNA is developing a harmonised policy tracking tool that can be used by the African Union, governments, CSOs, media, researchers and other stakeholders to assess progress on IFFs and taxation. By establishing a permanent presence in Addis Abeba the TJNA seeks to enhance its advisory and advocacy capacity with the AU-Commission, Economic Commission for Africa and other regional cooperation platforms.