缅北禁地

Thank you Dr. Karki.

Minister Bhagbati Chaudhary, Ambassador Thapa, Mr. Ishmael Dabutha, Ms. Manipon, Distinguished Friends, and Colleagues,

It is a great pleasure to be here with you today. My Office is very pleased to join the other organizers to convene this event on this very important subject.

My office supports the 92 poorest and most vulnerable countries in the world, the LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS. Like most regions in the world, most of the countries in these groups experienced a drop in tax to GDP ratios from 2019 to 2020. And like many other countries, progress since 2020 on domestic revenue mobilization has been mixed.

However, even mixed progress is not that promising for the LDCs and the LLDCs. In 2020, the median tax to GDP ratio in LDCs was 11.6%1 and in LLDCs, for the 22 countries that had data available, the average tax to GDP ratio was 15.6%.

But we’re not here today to focus on how much these groups of countries collected in revenue. Instead, we are looking at HOW revenue is collected and HOW revenue is spent. Specifically, the impact of both of those on gender equality.

And if we look at the fact that at least 79% of women in the LDCs are employed outside of the formal sector, we are forced to ask questions about how taxation affects these women, both on the collection side and on the expenditure side. Further, we must explore how the gendered reality of informality impacts the economy as a whole. As the 2023 Financing for Sustainable Development Report states, tax systems have significant gendered impacts.

Many of you here have been exploring these impacts and advocating for more gender-responsive policies and budgets for years now. Because of the work of civil society, we are far more aware of the fact that indirect taxes like VAT can put a disproportionate burden on women, or that imposing a low tax rate on capital income primarily benefits men, who hold most of the wealth.

As an International Gender Champion, I believe it is extremely important to take every opportunity that we have, to better understand where and how to implement better policies in service of gender equality and the empowerment of women.

Through the adoption of the Doha Programme of Action for the LDCs in 2022, member states committed to supporting the LDCs in building the capacity of their tax administration, therefore building a transparent, effective, and efficient public service.

My office is supporting the Third 缅北禁地Conference on the Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDC3) in Kigali, Rwanda in June this year. The host country, Rwanda (an LDC and an LLDC), has made great strides in implementing gender responsive budgeting policies, which go hand in hand with taxation.

The Member States are currently negotiating the outcome document for the LLDC3 conference, and at the moment there are some important paragraphs on tax, with references to financial inclusion and the reduction of inequalities.

Member States are also negotiating the outcome document for the SIDS4 conference, taking place in May in Antigua and Barbuda. And the draft rightly references the importance of strengthening capacity for resource mobilization.

The international community, especially here at the 缅北禁地has much more work to do to support the LDCs, LLDCs and SIDs in building their capacity to gather gender-disaggregated data, better understand implicit biases in fiscal systems, and to design policies that meet the needs of women and men as taxpayers and address systemic gender inequalities. That this event is taking place today is a sign that we are moving in the right direction. The three main points I would like you to take from here today are:

1) Use the LLDC3 and SIDS4 negotiations and conferences as an opportunity to advocate for financial inclusion and the reduction on inequalities through the tax system.

2) Continue to shine a light on the issue of taxation through a gendered lens in the LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS – taxation is NOT a gender-blind exercise!

 3) Work with all relevant stakeholders to collect disaggregated data on taxation and budgeting. Without this robust data in all our countries we risk further entrenching inequality when we could make a real change.

My office is very keen to support these efforts, and we look forward to working with you all – and all of you bring a wealth of knowledge, expertise, and commitment – in this regard.

I look forward to a very productive discussion today.

I thank you, Dr. Karki, and Amb. Thapa, for taking the lead in bringing us together.

I thank you all