TAI Weekly

TAI Weekly | The Unequal Burden of Tax in an Extractive Economy

By TAI (Role at TAI)
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TAI Weekly

Dear readers,

At last week’s World Economic Forum gathering, coverage focused on the contrast between the speeches of Mark Carney and Donald Trump, while behind the scenes AI companies were hustling for investment and there was little talk of public goods. Davos has always been elitist, but has been an incubator of standards in the past. Not so much this time, and Katharina Pistor argues we should shutter what she calls a platform for anti-democratic deal-making.

See our Focused Topic for more on economic power translating into political influence. In the meantime, read up on everything from global parliaments to beneficial ownership in Chile to ideas for resourcing social justice.

Happy reading!

TAI team

What's New

Last week, we covered Uganda’s election results, which secured another term for the president, now 40 years in power. This outcome echoes Achille Mbembe’s assessment that substantive democracy is largely absent across much of Africa, driven by a failed model of “auto-colonization” in which elites treat citizens as subjects, undermining democratic legitimacy and citizen agency.

One year after Executive Order 14169 paused and reviewed U.S. foreign assistance, Kristie Evenson argues that democracy, human rights, and governance support now operates in a far more constrained landscape, marked by political hostility, reduced and volatile funding, and transactional approaches with significant consequences for civil society worldwide.

Eurovision News Spotlight has released a professional guide for journalists on automating evidence collection from public websites, outlining practical workflows for tracking changes, capturing metadata, and preserving proof through digital fingerprints, supporting accountability journalism in a fast-changing information environment.

A new global survey commissioned by Democracy Without Borders finds broad public support for a citizen-elected world parliament to address global issues. Is it sign of growing appetite for new forms of global democratic governance? Rich Wilson would argue “yes.” His analysis explores whether ordinary citizens can change how the world is governed.

A new paper by the BLIS Collective, argues that narrative research should not only seek to better understand how ideas and perceptions shift, but be designed to increase the narrative power of movement actors working to shift the material conditions of communities. Want more on narratives? Take a look at TAI's report “The stories we tell", a study on how civil society reshapes narratives to strengthen trust and democracy.

Keseb has introduced the second cohort of its Democracy Fellowship, twelve democracy entrepreneurs and organizations from Brazil, South Africa, and the United States. The Fellowship provides deep support to leading national democracy entrepreneurs and their organizations working to reimagine democratic foundations.

A new Spanish-language paper examines lessons from Chile and Mexico's work on transparency of beneficial ownership, finding that "the lack of conditions for adopting a centralized registry can be compensated for by a progressive approach based on strategic sectors," including public procurement.

Democracy Next has released highlights from launching "Scaling Democratic Innovations," including the full paper, recording, and key takeaways on infrastructure, ecosystems, and long-term democratic change. The work explores how democratic innovations can expand while maintaining their essential character.

ESSENTIAL WATCHING:

Want to catch up on all things tax? Check out recordings from recent tax events: the OECD on the global minimum tax; the Tax Justice Network on using administrative data for tax research; an LSE seminar with Marlies Glasius on billionaire tax avoidance; the World Bank on how curbing corruption and environmental crime could raise to 1.7% of GDP; the Institute of Development Studies hosting Chenai Mukumba on more inclusive, equitable tax and multilateral systems, and the Tax Expenditures Lab, the Council on Economic Policies, and the German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS) launch of 2025 Flagship Report on Tax Expenditure Effectiveness and release of Global Tax Expenditures Transparency Index (GTETI).

From Our Members

HILTON FOUNDATION: Has announced the appointment of Ribka Fox as its new Vice President and Chief People Officer. In this role, she will lead the Foundation’s Talent and Culture department, bringing her experience to support and strengthen the organization’s people and workplace culture.

HUMANITY UNITED: Emphasized the importance of convening at the 14th Global Investigative Journalism Conference (GIJC25) in Kuala Lumpur, where 1,500 journalists and media leaders from 135 countries gathered to strengthen collaboration and solidarity in support of investigative journalism amid rising global threats.

MACARTHUR FOUNDATION: Announced $10 million in new grants to strengthen the humanities, responding to growing pressures on the field, including threats to academic freedom and the erasure of vital histories. The funding supports organizations that investigate and illuminate human culture, thought, and experience.

TOOLS AND TRENDS FOR FUNDERS

Grace Maingi from Kenya and Novi Meyanto from Indonesia shared their perspectives on financial sustainability and civic space with Lucia Nader. Both are supporting NGOs and movements to strengthen their financial resilience, a path that often includes diversifying funding sources but is never limited to that.

Marième Daff, executive director at Firelight Foundation, reflects on findings from EPIC-Africa's report "From Fragility to Fortitude." While funding cuts threaten organizational survival, the report also points to a clear blueprint: flexible capital, stronger ecosystems, co-created partnerships, and African-led innovation. Inherently African, community-driven philanthropy offers the most resilient path forward.

India's private philanthropy reached INR 16 billion ($177 million) in the 2024 financial year and is projected to grow at 10-12 percent annually, a fivefold increase over the past decade. However, Ami Misra and Mahima Sharda argue that without a strong support system, this generosity risks falling short of its potential. The giving infrastructure in India remains fragmented and under-invested, missing out on its potential.

The Alternative Resourcing for Change and Solidarity Roundtable has launched its website as a space where leaders, funders, advocates, and partners can share new ideas about resourcing social justice and human rights organizations and co-create a new vision for the sector's future.

ESSENTIAL READING:

Publish What You Fund has released an updated Multilateral development climate finance dataset covering around 6,500 climate-tagged investments, amid concerns that $71 billion of the $437 billion claimed by multilateral development banks between 2021 and 2024 cannot be traced to projects. In a new blog, Ella Remande-Guyard explains why this transparency gap matters and what the available data reveals.

Focused Topic of the Week

Checking Pockets While Billions Flow: Tax Reform Confronts the Architecture of Extraction

This danger is not hypothetical. Oxfam's Resisting the Rule of the Rich documents how billionaire wealth grew three times faster than its five-year average in 2025, reaching $18.3 trillion, even as one in four people face food insecurity and nearly half the world lives in poverty. The wealthy don't simply accumulate—they translate economic power into political influence, with billionaires over 4,000 times more likely to hold office than ordinary people. This creates a feedback loop where those who benefit most from existing arrangements shape the rules to preserve their advantages, including tax policies that favor capital over labor, inheritance over effort, and mobility over place.

The international tax architecture reflects these power dynamics. Negotiations on the UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation represent an opportunity to build more equitable global rules, with the fourth Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee session scheduled for February 2-13 in New York (materials available here). Yet whether this process delivers meaningful change depends on whether it addresses fundamental questions of ownership, extraction, and power.

Nigeria is moving toward greater tax reliance. In theory, taxation strengthens the social contract—governments become accountable to citizens who fund them, and public services flow from collective contribution. Yet as The Guardian reports, Nigerians are "checking their pockets" as new policies take effect, suggesting anxiety about who will bear the burden. Without progressive design and robust enforcement against elite tax avoidance, taxation becomes another mechanism of inequality rather than its remedy.

Robin Jaspert's research reveals that over half of stock-listed companies across Africa's eight largest equity markets are foreign-owned, with Zambia's figure reaching 87%. This matters because stock markets channel capital flows, influence corporate governance, and shape who benefits from economic growth. When ownership resides elsewhere, profits flow outward, tax bases erode, and domestic populations bear costs while reaping fewer rewards. 

These developments illuminate a fundamental tension in contemporary development: the promise of taxation as a tool for equity confronts the reality of economic structures designed to concentrate wealth and power. Addressing inequality requires confronting not just how much is taxed but who owns what, who decides, and whose interests economic systems ultimately serve.

JOBS

CALLS

  • Apolitical in partnership with the Open Government Partnership offers a free course for public servants on Open Government: How to Be Transparent, Participatory and Accountable.

  • Knight Center For Journalism: Free, on-demand online course on "A better way to cover civic life through listening" for journalists in all regions, offered by the Solutions Journalism Network. 

  • Mozilla Foundation is seeking nominations to identify the next generation of technology leaders through its 2026 Mozilla Fellows program. Nominations Close on January 30, 2026.

  • The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative is accepting proposals for partner sessions at its Global Conference set for June 24-25 in the Philippines. Deadline is January 30, 2026.

  • Keseb’s Democracy Innovation Lab is backing early-stage ideas that reimagine the foundations of democracy. Its first iLab will support 10 community-building initiatives that strengthen inclusion and cross-group belonging. Submit a pitch by February 2, 2026 (11:59 PM ET).

  • The call for workshop proposals for the 2026 International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) is now open. Under the theme "Igniting the Power of Integrity," the conference will take place in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, from December 1-4, 2026. Professionals, civil society groups, activists, journalists, academics, and practitioners worldwide are invited to submit proposals by February 23, 2026. 

  • Two ScaleDem open calls are now live through 31 March 2026, offering eligible organizations across Europe and beyond funding, mentorship and peer learning to scale democratic innovations. The Piloting Programme supports bold new ideas with up to €100,000, and the Twinning Programme offers up to €65,500 for mentor–mentee communities adapting proven approaches. 

 CALENDAR

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