2022 ECOSOC Forum on Financing for Development

26 April 2022 | 8:00 – 9:30 am EDT

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Government of Finland and the Government of Norway invite you to the High-Level Symposium on Tax and SDGs and to the Launch of UNDP’s Tax for Sustainable Development Goals Initiative.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that people around the world enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030. Advancing the 2030 Agenda is however challenging and requires significant, well-targeted public and private investment.

Taxation and fiscal policies play a key role in development financing as instrumental building blocks for the development of societies. Taxes provide necessary funding, promoting new and more sustainable growth strategies. They also encourage behaviour changes contributing to desired outcomes, including regarding environmental, health, gender equality and the SDGs more broadly.

Opportunities exist to incorporate SDGs in tax and fiscal policy work, as well as to bring tax and fiscal policy closer to national SDG planning, including through national SDG taxation assessments. Simultaneously, regional and country-level efforts are needed to integrate the work of development partners to ensure that the technical efforts on taxation are well coordinated and contribute to broader developmental and governance outcomes.

The High-Level Symposium on Tax and Sustainable Development Goals will bring together leaders in taxation, public finance, development, government and academia to discuss how taxation can support achievement of the SDGs at the country level, with a particular focus on African countries, and to launch the Tax for SDGs Initiative. 

Keynote Speakers

• Mr. Achim Steiner, Administrator, UNDP
• H.E. Ville Skinnari, Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade, Finland
• H.E. Bjørg Sandkjær, State Secretary, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Norway
• H.E. Vera Daves, Minister of Finance, Angola (tbc)
• H.E. Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Minister of Finance, Indonesia (tbc)

Moderated Panel Discussion

Taxation and fiscal policies are critical to achieving the SDGs and strengthening the social contract

• Ms. Ahunna Eziakonwa, Assistant Secretary-General and Director Regional Bureau for

Africa, UNDP - Lead Speaker

1. Mr. Pascal Saint-Amans, Director of the Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, OECD
2. Prof. Jayati Ghosh, Professor of Economics, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst
3. Mr. Lawrence Mafuru, Deputy Permanent Secretary, Minister of Finance and Planning,

Tanzania

4. Ms. Marlene Parker, Chief Tax Counsel, Jamaica, and Chair, UN Committee of Experts on

International Cooperation in Tax Matters

5. Mr. Ibrahim Elbadawi, Managing Director, Economic Research Forum (tbc)
Vote of Thanks
Mr. Marcos Neto, Director, Sustainable Finance Hub, UNDP

Invite_High-Level Symposium on Tax and SDGs.pdf