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Notes on Contributors: Biometric Digital-ID in Africa
No full textThis is the Notes on Contributors for Biometric Digital-ID in Africa: Progress and Challenges to Date - Ten Country Case Studies.</p
Digital-ID in Botswana: Country Report
No full textThis report examines Botswana’s biometric digital identification (digital-ID) system, centred on the ‘Omang’ national identity card, which has evolved from a paper-based ID introduced in 1988 to a biometric platform incorporating fingerprint and facial recognition technologies. The significance of the Omang system extends beyond mere identification, serving as a gateway to essential services, facilitating cross-border movement, and underpinning government efforts to transform Botswana into a knowledge-based digital economy.This research assesses the current state of Botswana’s digital-ID system, its legislative framework, and operational implementation against established rule of law, rights-based, and risk-based tests. Through this evaluation, the report identifies strengths and vulnerabilities in the system’s design and governance, examining how effectively it balances security considerations with citizens’ rights to privacy, inclusion, and non-discrimination. The analysis proceeds through five interconnected sections: examining the historical ID landscape in Botswana, applying rule of law tests to assess legal foundations, employing rights-based tests to evaluate human rights implications, using risk-based tests to identify and assess governance of potential harms, and concluding with findings and recommendations for improvement.</p
Social Protection and Climate-Induced Displacement in Pakistan
No full textAdaptive social protection is critical in addressing recurrent climate shocks and poverty in Pakistan but our research in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa suggests that its effectiveness is limited due to fragmented governance, elite capture, and gendered disparities in access to support. While formal state-led systems are central pillars of social protection provision, non-governmental organisations, informal networks and community-based organisations often fill critical gaps. The coexistence of these formal and informal systems requires a more integrated, inclusive, and context-sensitive approach to social protection. This has broader implications for designing equitable and resilient social protection systems in fragile, vulnerable settings in the face of escalating climate risks.</p
UK Leadership in Antimicrobial Discovery and Development
No full textThe threat of infectious diseases that resist treatment with available antimicrobials is growing. Nearly a decade after the O'Neill Review on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) called for systemic reform of antimicrobial research and development (R&D), the UK has helped catalyse real progress, including the world’s first antimicrobial subscription model. Despite these efforts, the number of people engaged in the development of new drugs has decreased and few new products have been discovered and become available.The UK Action Plan for Antimicrobial Resistance 2024-29 commits the government to continue its leadership in addressing this major global challenge. This can include a central role in supporting antimicrobial R&D through its focus on science and technology innovation as drivers of economic growth and international development. This will require a system-level approach to antimicrobial discovery with new kinds of collaboration between government and leading scientists in the public and private sectors.The LEAD: Leadership in Enhancing Antimicrobial Discovery coalition is a network of scientists, policy experts and other leaders from the UK and internationally, working together to strengthen the antimicrobial innovation ecosystem. This policy brief draws on their collective expertise to assess the current state of antimicrobial R&D, highlight opportunities for the UK to enhance its leadership and set out how closer collaboration with government can accelerate the discovery and development of urgently needed treatments.</p
The Politics of Social Assistance in Protracted Crises: Insights from Lebanon, Nigeria, and Yemen
No full textThis paper investigates the politics of social assistance in protracted crises, focusing on the nexus of social protection and humanitarian assistance. It identifies effective approaches for international actors to engage with and strengthen systems at national and subnational levels. The analysis draws on country studies from the Better Assistance in Crises (BASIC) Research programme and applies a comparative analytical framework to examine the dynamics of social assistance in Lebanon, Yemen, and Nigeria. Key findings include the substantial influence of international actors in countries with tight public finances and large-scale conflict, the diminishing scope of international influence when considering the full set of social protection instruments, and the role of informal networks in providing support where state and international actors fall short. The paper emphasises the importance of understanding and working with existing local capacities, embedding technical measures in locally owned reform pathways, and investing in the wider rule of law to advance effective social protection.</p
What Impact Do Tax Agents Have on Taxpayers’ Compliance in Uganda? Evidence from Tax Administrative Data
No full textTax agents occupy a pivotal yet understudied position in tax systems. Most existing knowledge on their role comes from earlier work in high- and upper-middle-income countries. This generally finds that taxpayers hire agents to meet obligations they perceive as complex, while a smaller group seeks to minimise their tax liability through the exploitation of legal loopholes made possible by aggressive tax advice. This dual compliance-avoidance role has scarcely been examined in low-income countries. Exploratory evidence from Uganda, drawn from small surveys of revenue officials and tax agents, suggests a similar pattern – taxpayers primarily engage agents to navigate a complex tax system, and the most requested services are reviewing bookkeeping and preparing returns. On the other hand, tax officials prefer interacting with agents, and view agent-prepared returns as less prone to large audit adjustments. However, these surveys could not establish system-wide effects, due to small samples and limited access to data.Summary of ICTD Working Paper 221.</p
The Politics of Social Assistance in Yemen’s Protracted Conflict
No full textThis briefing examines the politics of social assistance in Yemen, where support is dominated by international humanitarian aid. With contested authority, the Government of Yemen (GoY) has a limited role in social assistance provision, while the Houthi rebel de-facto authority (DFA) seeks to control aid distribution. Despite capture challenges, the Social Fund for Development (SFD) remains one of the few entities able to work across the country. International responses need to help rebuild and strengthen social protection systems through sustainable investments in the technical, infrastructural, financial and logistical capabilities of social assistance agencies in GoY-held areas. </p
Cashless Tax Systems: Voluntary vs. Mandated Digital Payments in Eswatini
No full textTax payments are increasingly made digitally in low and middle income countries (LMICs), especially in Africa, where revenue mobilisation remains critical. However, there are obstacles to wider adoption, as well as limited understanding of the impacts of mandating digital tools to all taxpayers.We examined these issues in Eswatini by measuring the impact of digital tax payment on tax compliance, considering both voluntary and mandated adoption, after the zero-cash-handling policy of April 2021.Theoretically, digital payments can cut compliance costs, reduce bribery opportunities, and increase convenience. They create verifiable trails, improving transparency and accuracy – especially when integrated with e-filing. For administrations, they speed collection, reduce leakages, and improve monitoring via higher-quality data. Yet uptake is constrained by persistent cash use, low digital literacy, weak connectivity, and administrative barriers.These reforms are directly relevant to the global digital public infrastructure (DPI) agenda, where interoperable and inclusive digital payments are recognised as a core building block alongside digital IDs and data exchange, enabling governments to deliver faster, more secure, and more integrated public services.Summary of African Tax Administration Paper 43.</p
Climate Change and Social Protection in Protracted Crises
No full textThere is extensive evidence that social protection programmes significantly reduce climate vulnerabilities and increase absorptive and adaptive capacities. However, mainstreaming climate change into international social protection shows mixed progress. International actors focus overwhelmingly on shock-responsive social protection rather than slow-onset climate transformations, transformative adaptation, resilience-building, and just transition. This narrow approach limits potential for attracting climate finance and addressing comprehensive climate risks. With climate impacts intensifying in protracted crises, urgent action is needed to broaden engagement beyond short-term shocks.</p
The Interpersonal Side of Tax Compliance: Interactions Between Taxpayers and Tax Officials in Rwanda
No full textIn the growing body of research on tax administration in low-income countries (LICs), one key aspect has received little attention – its interpersonal nature. Taxpayers in LICs interact with tax officials more often than those in higher income contexts, and their taxpaying experience is shaped by their interactions with the people who implement tax rules and laws. These interactions have the potential to affect taxpayers’ views on tax administration and compliance, with implications for revenue mobilisation.Against this background, this research investigates two questions:What is the attitude of tax officials in interactions with taxpayers – from the perspective of both tax officials and taxpayers?How do the attitudes and actions of tax officials affect taxpayers’ perceptions and their attitude to compliance?Summary of ICTD Working Paper 215.</p