BRIEF PROJECT DESCRIPTION Mobilising Progressive Domestic Resources For Quality Public Services is a three year project with the overall objective of making fiscal systems in Kenya and Vietnam more progressive in order to tackle inequality and poverty. We will do this by building civil society-led campaigns and advocacy, and by supporting capacity building of both civil society and government actors, on fiscal justice to generate the missing ‘political will’ amongst leaders and policy-makers that is necessary to strengthen the revenue-raising potential of tax systems, and to deliver more and better investment in free public services.Putting fiscal policy at the heart of national influencing work in this way requires partner organisations to engage in the design and delivery of national strategy, therefore we have proposed an initial six-month inception phase during which a detailed log frame and activity plan will be developed with partners for the remaining 2.5 years of the project. This approach is crucial to ensure the project is strategic and owned by civil society and has lasting impact.Oxfam will work with partners to target policy makers in order to reduce inequality and increase access to quality public services. The building of ‘political will’ amongst policy makers will ensure governments meet their esponsibilities to eradicate poverty and reduce inequalities, and be accountable to citizens in doing so.In the case of Kenya, tax revenue has been around 20% of GDP for some time, but citizens feel that that budget expenditure is too corrupt and that they are left out of policy making. In Vietnam, economic growth is disproportionately benefiting a small elite whilst excluding the many. In both countries, the project beneficiaries will be citizens, especially vulnerable groups and women, in areas where Oxfam and our partners work. Citizens will be better able to advocate for their rights as tax-payers to have access to quality public services. Partners will benefit from technical expertise on domestic resource mobilisation (DRM) and advocacy skills through capacity building, training, and support. And government officials will benefit from ecognising their responsibility for service provision and tackling inequality.This project will allow citizens in Kenya and Vietnam to stand up for their rights to fair taxation, public services and accountable governments, and build a base of civil society advocates who can hold decision-makers to account.2. BACKGROUNDDomestic revenue is the most important and most sustainable source of long term for all states. Done right, in addition to raising revenue, DRM can improve governance and accountability and fight inequality through effective redistribution. Overseas development aid, ưhile having increased slightly in 2013 and returning to pre-crisis levels, is, for many countries, playing a less important role in funding government expenditure. This trend can be expected to continue. The greatest resources that developing countries have at their disposal are domestic tax and, in many cases, extractive sectors revenues, but countries often face an uphill struggle to mobilise enough revenues to fight poverty and reduce inequality.In addition to tax collection being insufficient, it is also unfair, reducing the state’s ability to appropriately fund public services and tackle rising inequalities. This is mainly due to regressive tax systems, excessive tax exemptions, under resourced tax administration and too often, due to very high levels of tax dodging by multinationals and wealthy individuals that are draining away much needed revenues from public national budgets.
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