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Walking the Talk – SDSN UK Public Event Series on SDGs

By Eve de la Mothe Karoubi

‘Walking the talk: Getting serious about the UN Sustainable Development Goals’ series

On May 19 2022, the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP), host of SDSN UK , held the event ‘What’s tax got to do with it? Business, reporting and the SDGs’. The event is part of the ‘ Walking the talk: Getting serious about the UN Sustainable Development Goals ’ public event series, which kicked off in April and brings together leading thinkers, policymakers, urban designers and artists to think deeply about the tools that they are using to advance the SDGs and the challenges they face.

This second talk in the series looked at how the tax system can be used to help shift investment and activity towards the SDGs. Overall, it is clear that taxation can play a vital role in helping to deliver the SDGs, but much more must be done to ensure that everyone pays their fair share.

Panelist Dr Bernadette O’Hare, Senior lecturer in Global Health at the University of St Andrews, started the discussion by explaining why increasing the amount of revenue raised from taxation will be key to achieving the SDGs – a key conclusion shared by SDSN’s Sustainable Development Report 2021. Dr Waziona Ligomeka, the Director of Policy Planning and Research at Malawi Revenue Authority, shared insights about the challenges faced in Malawi, where GDP per capita is merely $637, far below the global average of $10,916.

Prof. Kenneth Amaeshi, Chair in Sustainable Finance and Governance at the European University Institute’s School of Transnational Governance, explained how governments in Africa often find it difficult to trace financial transactions, which makes it challenging to monitor and enforce compliance. Dr Kate Roll, Assistant Professor in Innovation, Development and Purpose at IIPP and Manager of SDSN UK, described this “crisis of legitimacy”: “If states aren’t raising revenue, and are performing poorly as a result, this further erodes a key source of legitimacy.” How to break the feedback loop between low tax revenues, poor government outcomes and deteriorating public trust is therefore a crucial issue.