Vincent as usual is only negative. I wish he would put his considerable skills to positive and productive works. I think he has a lot to contribute if only he could change his negative energies to positive ones. For example, Dave and Ryan excellent contributions have points on which to build.

What African needs is free and fair trade and not “aid,” which are actually loans that generation after generation have to repay.

Taxation, and especially direct taxation, makes governments accountable to their people, not to donors, and the need to collect tax widely provides a strong impetus to governments to build stronger institutions. In dollar terms, tax is far, far, bigger than aid. And yet tax is all but forgotten in the development debates. At last, this is starting to change.

Aid can certainly provide much that is good, but it is saddled with these problems that make it much like oil, whose revenues (like aid) don’t make governments accountable to citizens. Like oil, aid causes “Dutch Disease” effects – and much more.

Historians looking at Europe and the United States have long known about the “no taxation without representation” argument and related ones; now development theorists are just waking up to this kind of thing. The IMF has just written a short paper about it (see the link provided below.) Tax is the next wave in the field of development. Christian Aid, Action Aid, the Tax Justice Network, and others are beginning to wake up to this. More are getting interested all the time.

Reuters needs to get on top of this. It’s one of those things where in a few years’ time people will be asking: “why was nobody working on this before?” Catch the wave early, I say, and start to look into it.

This link here “In Africa, pay more attention to tax – IMF” (http://taxjustice.blogspot.com/2008/08/ in-africa-pay-more-attention-to-tax-imf. html ) provides links to articles that you need to get more acquainted with this stuff.

Also see here (more links are provided at the bottom of the page once you click on it):
http://www.taxjustice.net/cms/front_cont ent.php?idcat=130

and it would be worth trying to get hold of theorists such as Mick Moore (quoted in the IMF paper you’ll link to from the blog and the web site), Deborah Brauetigam, and a few others. Reuters: pick up the phone and write the stories!

Best wishes

Nicholas Shaxson, (a former Reuters journalist. You might also find of interest an article I co-wrote in The American Interest recently, about why we’ve only got part of the way in understanding corruption: http://www.the-american-interest.com/ai2  /article-bd.cfm?Id=466&MId=21 which has a strong tax angle)

When we began our project, we scanned the news to find a local partner with the necessary skills, motivation and experience, and asked him what he needed to make a difference in his community. We then gave him some of the resources he needed and assessed the project’s effectiveness as time went on.

Today, the ACCC is one of the most effective development projects in Kandahar, with more than 700 students attending at a cost of less than $15 per student per month. Our efforts were successful because we drew upon local expertise, invested in the future of the community, and made efficient use of time and money.