What’s tax got to do with it? Business, reporting and the SDGs

Dr Kate Roll

Assistant Professor in Innovation, Development and Purpose at UCL IIPP

Dr Roll holds a DPhil in Politics (2015) and an MPhil in International Development Studies (2011; distinction) from the University of Oxford. Dr Roll’s doctoral fieldwork involved logging over 1,000 km on a motorbike, crisscrossing Timor-Leste to survey and interview over 220 registered former combatants – now one of the largest studies of its kind. Her BA from Brown University is in International Relations (2006; honours, Phi Beta Kappa), where her award-winning thesis focussed on how private military companies establish legitimacy.

Dr Bernadette O’Hare

Senior lecturer in Global Health at University of St Andrews

She has worked in several countries in sub-Saharan Africa as a paediatrician and public health doctor, most recently in Malawi from 2010-2015 full-time and 2016-present, part-time.

She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH), sits on the Working Group on Climate Change and chairs the International Strand.  She joined the Scottish Global Health Co-ordination Unit, where she initiated the Active Global Citizenship strand of work and currently is the lead champion of academia. She sits on the Scottish Chief Medical Officers (CMO) Global Health Executive Committee. She formerly sat on the advocacy committee and the international board of the RCPCH and the Paediatric and Child Health Executive Committee (PACHA) in Malawi.

Dr O'Hare studies the global influences on government revenue in low- and middle-income countries and the impact on development and fundamental rights.

These influences include tax revenue, debt service, and military expenditure. She studies ways to quantify their impact on access to fundamental rights (water, sanitation, education and healthcare) and the number of lives saved or lost. This project is called the Government Revenue and Development estimations, GRADE.

Prof. Kenneth Amaeshi

Chair in Sustainable Finance and Governance at EUI's School of Transnational Governance

Kenneth's research interest currently focuses on financial market reforms and governance, as well as on sector-level policies for sustainability and sustainability strategy in organisations. He has an expert level knowledge of developing and emerging economies. His research has a very strong interface between business and society, particularly national governments in Africa, where he has an extensive network. Since 2015, he has significantly contributed to developing the intellectual foundations of Africapitalism – an economic philosophy for the development of Africa – and championed its mainstreaming in the global academia. 

​Besides teaching and researching, Kenneth works closely with businesses and governments in Africa, Europe, and Asia. He leads executive capacity building engagements and consultancy projects in the broad areas of sustainable finance, sustainability strategy, leadership, ethics, and governance for multinational corporations and institutions. He was recently a Scholar in Residence at the National Pension Commission, Nigeria.

Dr Waziona Ligomeka

He has served in the Ministry of Finance of the Malawi Government in various positions, including chief economist in the Revenue Policy Division and special assistant to the Secretary to the Treasury. He has also worked as a training facilitator in tax research with the International Centre for Tax and Development (ICTD), a research institute based at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) in the UK. 

He holds PhD in Taxation from University of Sussex (UK), master’s degree in International Development Policy (Taxation) from Duke University (USA) and bachelor’s degree in economics from University of Malawi. 

His research interests cover all aspects of tax policy and tax administration. Some of his publications include “Expensive to be a female trader: the reality of taxation female traders in Zimbabwe” and “Assessing the performance of African tax Administration: A Malawian Puzzle”.