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This annual publication compiles comparable tax revenue and non-tax revenue statistics for 31 countries in Africa: Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone South Africa, Togo, Tunisia and Uganda. The report extends the well-established methodology on the classification of public revenues set out in the OECD Interpretative Guide to African countries, thereby enabling comparison of tax levels and tax structures not only across the continent, but also with the OECD, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Asia and the Pacific. Data on African countries presented in this publication are also included in the OECD’s Global Revenue Statistics database, which is a fundamental reference for analysis of domestic resource mobilisation. This edition includes a special feature on taxation of the informal sector in Africa. The publication is jointly undertaken by the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, the OECD Development Centre, the African Union Commission and the African Tax Administration Forum, with the financial support of the European Union. SPECIAL FEATURE: EFFICIENT TAXATION OF THE INFORMAL SECTOR IN AFRICA

Successive crises including COVID-19, Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and the climate emergency are exacerbating inequalities between and within countries and stifling progress to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement. While developed countries deployed historic stimulus packages to build back better, developing countries lacked fiscal and monetary buffers to respond. Countries with the fewest resources face challenging trade-offs between short-term rescue and long-term financing for a sustainable recovery. The SDG financing gap in developing countries grew due to a drop in available resources called upon in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda coupled with rising financing needs. Official Development Assistance (ODA), or aid, played an important role to help narrow the gap, but could not do so on its own. Global crises open a window of opportunity for SDG alignment of broader resources to narrow the gap. Growing trillions in developed countries aim to reduce risks, including environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria. However, resources are not reaching the countries most in need. Urgent action is needed to remove bottlenecks for a more equitable and needs-based allocation of sustainable finance.

Financial and commodity markets have been impacted by high inflation and a deteriorating growth outlook. The necessary tightening of monetary policy has cascaded through markets, contributing to rising yields, significant asset price corrections, and rising debt costs for sovereigns, households and corporates. Existing high debt levels in these sectors raise concerns about the prospects of debt servicing. In some emerging markets, tightening financial conditions combined with weak fundamentals and large outflows could accelerate debt distress. The growing potential for broad-based credit losses could affect the resilience of various financial intermediaries, with negative impacts on credit intermediation and economic growth going forward.

This paper provides a common framework for financial institutions – and particularly development finance institutions – on how to carry out due diligence to identify, respond to, and publicly communicate on environmental and social risks associated with projects and assets they finance. Financial institutions are increasingly being called to enable provisions of financing towards projects, infrastructure and other assets that will help achieve societal and development objectives, including the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement. Embedding responsible business conduct (RBC) into their activities and across their value chains can help them meaningfully contribute to these objectives. This paper is designed for financial institutions that wish to implement the recommendations of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises with respect to RBC due diligence in the context of project and asset finance transactions. It will provide practical recommendations to financial institutions on key aspects of the RBC due diligence process, including on stakeholder engagement, managing client’s confidentiality, providing for or contributing to the remediation process, etc.

India has achieved major progress in its energy sector over the last two decades. Still, investment needs to scale up considerably to meet the government’s ambitions to achieve 500 GW of renewable energy capacity and energy-intensity reductions of 45% by 2030. Targeted application of public funds, alongside international climate and development finance, can crowd in investors and channel private capital to meet India’s clean energy goals. The Clean Energy Finance and Investment Roadmap of India highlights key actions needed to accelerate the development of energy efficiency measures in micro, small and medium enterprises, offshore wind and green hydrogen production. The report provides a comprehensive overview of the initiatives to date and challenges to scale up investments. It also provides a number of tailored recommendations for the Government of India, development partners and the private sector.

Fiscal rules are increasingly used at state and local levels to promote fiscal sustainability in OECD countries. Following the Global Financial Crisis, multiple reforms to fiscal rule frameworks were made so that governments could better tackle crises and build buffers for future downturns. This paper examines recent trends in the adoption of fiscal rules across levels of government and empirically assesses their effects with the purpose of providing lessons for the post-COVID-19 period. Beyond addressing the deterioration in public finances after the pandemic, the challenges include addressing the impact of population ageing, climate change and the energy transition, as well as growing regional inequalities. Evolution of the rules employed at the central level are contrasted to those at the subnational levels, including design features and institutional elements, together with their goals and limitations.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that scale up have long raised policy interest for their extraordinary potential in terms of job creation, innovation, competitiveness and economic growth. Yet, little is known about which firms could effectively become scalers, and what policies could effectively promote SME growth. This report is part of a series aiming to help policy makers unleash scalers’ potential. Building on new evidence from microdata work, it rethinks the nature and scope of scale up policies, suggesting the need for a broader and more cross cutting approach. The report then explores two thematic areas that are relevant for SME scaling up, i.e. SME data governance and their access to ‘scale up’ finance. Based on an international mapping of 369 institutions and 1174 policy initiatives across OECD countries, the analysis shows that SME and entrepreneurship policy is not among the core mandates of many implementing institutions, calling for sound coordination across the board and further mainstreaming of SME growth considerations in both policy areas. Moreover, national policy mixes vary significantly across countries, reflecting different approaches to promoting SME growth and to SME targeting, but also revealing possible policy blind spots.