Similar Posts
Why Should Young People Care about the Financing for Development Agenda?
It’s a call to action for youth to rise, engage, demand, and drive transformative change and co-creators of a new financing paradigm that truly serves the people and the planet. This piece is also a call to action for governments, multi-lateral institutions and civil society organizations to rise to the challenge of meaningful youth inclusion.
Financing our Futures: What does Domestic Resource Mobilization (DRM) mean for Youth?
Youth should care. The main reason is because we’re paying, but not heard. Africa is the youngest continent in the world, with over 60% of its population under the age of 25. Yet despite being the majority, young people are among the most heavily taxed, especially through consumption taxes such as VAT on airtime, mobile money, transport, and everyday goods.
Reimagining The Mbeki Report For A New Generation
n 2015, the Mbeki Panel on Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) unveiled a truth that shook the continent: Africa was losing over $50 billion every year through illicit financial flows, all these are resources that could have transformed education, health, and infrastructure. Reports by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), UNCTAD and TJNA in recent years have underscored that these amounts are even higher in 2025. The report did more than expose a crisis; it offered a roadmap for reclaiming Africa’s wealth and strengthening domestic resource mobilization.
A decade later, that call for action still resonates, but it now meets a generation ready to act. The Youth for Tax Justice Network (YTJN) represents this renewed energy. It demonstrates the work young people are doing to advance the Mbeki Report’s vision through advocacy, policy dialogue, and youth-led campaigns that push for greater transparency, fair taxation, and accountability across Africa and beyond.
Third Session of UN Tax Convention Negotiations Kicks Off in Nairobi as Governments Begin Text-Based Discussions
For young people across Africa and the world, these negotiations represent more than just policy debates. They offer an unprecedented opportunity to shape an economic future focused on intergenerational equity, where every resource counts, and where fiscal justice becomes a tool for equality, innovation, and opportunity.
YTJN Nairobi Tax Talks RoundUp: Third Session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to Develop a UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation – Day 5
Delegates at the 3rd Session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC3) continued working toward the development of a UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation. Friday’s discussions focused on Article 11 on capacity-building and technical assistance, the digitalization of tax administration, sustainability and funding, roles of the Secretariat and COP, and updates from Workstream II on cross-border services.
Moving from Echoes to Action
A key discussion point was the looming public debt crisis, driven more by domestic borrowing than external sources. This inward borrowing approach has the unintended effect of shrinking fiscal space and crowding out essential public services.
