Mid-term evaluation of the program support for tax transition in West Africa (PATF)

With weak resources, maintaining a balanced budget has become one of the major constraints of the trade liberalisation process in West Africa. To address these constraints, Regional Organisations have implemented a fiscal transition programme aimed at further promoting mobilisation of sufficient domestic resources to finance development of member states. In doing this, the organisations have received support from technical and financial partners: UEMOA (since 2006) and ECOWAS (since 2013).

The West African Tax Transition Support Programme (PATF) is part of this process of strengthening the capacities of the two Regional Organisations and their Member States to make a success of their transition. It aims to support the implementation of the tax transition programme in the region, following the implementation of regional trade liberalisation policies. Specifically, PATF does this by focusing on improving VAT management and harmonising rules in the region, and on mastering the evaluation of tax expenditure as well as strengthening the capacities of tax and customs administrations in the fight against tax evasion, illicit financial flows and tax fraud.

Our consortium has been commissioned to conduct the mid-term evaluation of the PATF. In this mid-term evaluation, three contracts will be evaluated: Burkina Faso, Nigeria, and Liberia. These three countries are considered a representative sample of the variety of fiscal transition policy situations, covering both Anglophone and Francophone administrative systems, in the West African region.

The following 3 countries: Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Liberia are a representative sample of the variety of fiscal transition policy situations, covering both Anglophone and Francophone administrative systems, in the West African region.