Mobilising domestic resources in low- and middle-income countries

A recently developed framework, the Domestic Resource Mobilisation (DRM) Framework, identifies country-specific tax policy measures and estimates their tax revenue potential to mobilise additional domestic resources in low- and middle-income countries. Structured into four modules, the DRM Framework evaluates potential tax reforms considering a country's structural characteristics, including its level of development, economic structure, informal economy, and the tax and social protection system that is in place. It features a detailed database encompassing 115 countries, created specifically for this project, and compares individual countries with peers to identify potential areas of tax reform. The DRM Framework includes a range of specific and concrete macro and micro-level tools and methodologies to assess the tax revenue potential of a wide range of tax measures. In this Working Paper, the Framework is applied to social protection financing. However, the Framework can be applied to other financing priorities and used for domestic resource mobilisation more broadly.