Taxation, droits de propriété et le contrat social au Lagos

This ICTD Research in Brief is a two-page summary of ICTD Working Paper 73 by Tom Goodfellow and Olly Owen. This series is aimed at policy makers, tax administrators, fellow researchers and anyone else who is big on interest and short on time. Major taxation reforms over the past decade have been interpreted as facilitating the transformation of Lagos from of a city seen as in permanent ‘crisis’ to a beacon of ‘megacity development’. Most attention has focused on Personal Income Taxation (PIT). Less attention has been devoted to another innovation – the property tax or Land Use Charge (LUC). Yet the story of property taxation in Lagos since the early 2000s is important not only in terms of enormous increases in collection, but because of the ways in which it has helped to solidify the ‘fiscal contract’ between state and society.Ce résumé de recherches de l’ICTD est une synthèse de deux pages du document de travail 73 par Tom Goodfellow et Olly Owen. Cette série s'adresse aux décideurs politiques, aux administrateurs fiscaux, aux collègues chercheurs et à toute autre personne qui est intéressée mais qui n’a pas beaucoup de temps. Les réformes de taxation majeures ayant eu lieu ces dix dernières années sont considérées comme des catalyseurs de la transformation de Lagos d’une ville vue comme en ‘crise’ permanente à un modèle de développement d’une mégalopole. L’accent a été mis sur l’impôt sur le revenu des personnes physiques (IRPP). Moins d’attention a été consacrée à une autre innovation – la taxe foncière et la taxe sur la propriété foncière (TPF). Pourtant l’historique de la taxe foncière à Lagos depuis le début des années 2000 est importante non seulement du point de vue des énormes augmentations de la collecte mais également à cause de la façon dont il a aidé à solidifier ‘le contrat fiscal’ entre l’état et la société.Department for International DevelopmentBill and Melinda Gates Foundatio

Executive Summary: Evaluation of the MacArthur Foundation's Human Rights and International Justice Grantmaking in Nigeria 2000-2012

The MacArthur Foundation commissioned Itad to conduct an evaluation of the Foundation's Human Rights and International Justice (HRIJ) grant?making program in Nigeria between 2000 and 2012. During this period, the Foundation supported 102 HRIJ projects with an end?date in 2000 or later, for a total grant amount of US$23,945,010. The projects broadly fell within the following thematic categories:- Accountability of democratic institutions, including the police- Justice: legal and judicial reform, including international justice standards - Protection and promotion of human rightsThe evaluation was commissioned to seek answers to the following questions: - Approach and strategy: o What has changed in the wider Nigerian HRIJ landscape in Nigeria since 2000? o What was the Foundation's HRIJ grantmaking strategy in Nigeria over this time? o How has the Foundation responded to change in the wider environment? o How has the implementation of grants contributed to strategic aims? - Impact: o What have been the main results of the Foundation's investments? o What was the Foundation's primary contribution to Nigeria HRIJ issues? o What lessons can be drawn for future HRIJ grantmaking in Nigeria

ON THE RECORD: with Olly Owen and Andrew Faull

Olly Owen is a junior research fellow in the Department of International Development at the University of Oxford. In 2012 he completed his doctorate in Social and Cultural Anthropology at Oxford. This involved an ethnographic study of, and fieldwork with, the Nigerian Police Force. Andrew Faull is a doctoral research student at the Centre for Criminology, University of Oxford. His research also involves an ethnographic study of police, the South African Police Service. He completed nine months of fieldwork with the SAPS in April 2013. In this frank exchange Olly and Andrew discuss their observations relating to performance management in the respective agencies

Oiling the Legislature: An Appraisal of the Committee System in Nigeria’s National Assembly

he legislature occupies the epicenter of modern democratic system for two major reasons, namely it houses the largest number of elected representatives and secondly, it is the engine room of modern governance as it performs the traditional four-fold tasks of representation, lawmaking, oversight function and constituency services. The demands of modern governance entail that legislative assemblies must sift through several competing expectations and act in the overall public interest. In order to actualize these expectations, legislative assemblies have evolved the committee system to fast-track their operations. Nigeria’s National Assembly has been performing its core mandates through the instrumentality of committees. This chapter appraises the committee system in the National Assembly and finds that in addition to its relevance in reducing workload and improving overall efficiency, membership appointments into committees have been used by successive leaderships as prebends to consolidate their tenures. The chapter recognizes that while committees have been embroiled in several corruption scandals which undermine their moral authority to instil integrity in governance, it concludes that the committees have contributed immensely to the development of critical competencies that have aided the overall legislative success of the National Assembly