Mobilizing Domestic Revenues

Sustained domestic revenue mobilization (DRM) is crucial for developing countries to finance economic growth, achieve their development priorities, and build resilience to shocks. Yet seventy five percent of low-income countries and forty six percent of lower middle-income countries collect less than 15% of GDP in taxes—a level needed to boost growth and support vital investments. In many countries, a reliance on ineffective or inefficient tax contributes to forgone revenue with limited tangible benefits. Our best estimates suggest that the average low- or lower-middle-income country loses around 2.4% of GDP per year in forgone revenue from tax expenditures (of which investment incentives are an important part).

The Mobilizing Domestic Revenues Academy Impact Program will support policy makers in partner countries to develop country-specific pathways toward reforms that contribute to more effective, less wasteful and distortive investment incentives that bring tangible net benefits to the economy.

Representatives from Ministries of Finance, tax authorities, line ministries, parliamentarians, and private sector will:

Learn from successful institutional and policy reform episodes in peer countries to understand what worked, where the challenges lay, and how to overcome key bottlenecks.
Learn how to enhance reporting on forgone revenue from tax incentives by making better use of their taxpayer data; undertake cost-benefit analysis; and make evidence-based policy reform proposals.
Build consensus among a broad range of stakeholders around reforms that enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of tax incentive regimes without undermining the aims of growth and job creation.

Partners: Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government, regional organizations and think tanks

Program initiation: January-February 2026