Grounding ActionAid's Tax Justice Campaigns in Nigeria

Ma Josep Cascant‐Sempere

Development and Change, 2022, vol. 53, issue 3, 525-550

Abstract: Integrating the demands raised by those most affected by poverty into international campaigns is important for safeguarding ethical integrity and encouraging mobilization. This article examines the case of the international non‐governmental organization (INGO) ActionAid, which managed, although not without challenges, to integrate the tax complaints of market traders — such as multiple taxation — into its international tax justice campaign in Nigeria. The case provides an example of an INGO‐driven campaign that created and nurtured bottom‐up processes. The author argues that more could have been done to channel additional claims from traders — such as steep tax increases and tax harassment — and to support their actions, their visits and letters to the government, and their tax strikes. Overall, however, the INGO retained relevance by identifying campaign frames and targets at local, national and international levels while ensuring the campaign remained unified. The article contributes to debates about tokenism in international advocacy and argues that the use of social movement theory enriches the international advocacy literature as it promotes an understanding of campaigning processes. However, social movement theory still proves insufficient to fully understand political voice. Theories about hidden forms of resistance play a complementary role, unveiling more concealed political action, especially in repressive settings or contexts with weak civil societies.

Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/dech.12709

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:devchg:v:53:y:2022:i:3:p:525-550

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0012-155X

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Development and Change from International Institute of Social Studies
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().