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- Dr. Lyla Latif

Improving Livelihood at Household Level with Zakat Based Conscious Financing

Improving  Livelihood  at Household Level with  Zakat Based Conscious Financing

This paper explores spending zakat to support the financial improvement of women from low- or no-income households. It assesses the feasibility of remitting zakat over the m-pesa platform. M-pesa is a Kenyan mobile banking app that allows subscribers to send and receive money through their mobile phones without the use of the internet. The theory underpinning the paper’s analysis on the use of zakat to support the economic improvement of women is based on tax justice and social extraction. Taken together these theories suggest that redistribution can also be facilitated by non-state actors who apply their own norms in regulating how to spend their collective revenue towards improving lives.

As such, the paper, therefore, starts the discussion by highlighting the needfor redistribution using taxes, extends the conception of conventional tax to include zakat and justifies this position by interrogating whether the Kenyan fiscal space and its constitution can recognise zakat as part of tax system that supports the state to promote social and economic wellbeing. Whether zakat contributes to the social and economic improvement of people is examined by inquiring into a specific case study of Mama Riziki. The paper employs the discursive approach and is based on a mixed methods approach. The findings reveal that zakat-based conscious financing can improve livelihoods at a household level.

Uploaded by Dr. Lyla Latif
I have expertise in public finance and redistribution. My research, legal practice and publications focus on the physical and digital creation, movement, allocation and taxation of wealth, income, profits and revenue towards development needs and advancing progressive tax systems. I also train on international business taxation and on curbing illicit financial flows. My work has benefited African based and international advocacy organisations and think tanks; informed policy and law making at government level and provided pan-African specialist insight to international financing organisations. Outside Africa, I have studied and published on the tax systems of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the UAE and Qatar. I have supported capacity building, strengthening tax literacy and redefining norms around revenue mobilisation, financial flows, digitalisation, realising rights, financing and implementing SDGs, redistribution and fiscal systems in Africa. I am a first-class law graduate from the University of Nairobi, with a double Masters; one in public finance and financial services law and another in public policy and development. I have a PhD in wealth tax and financing public health. As the Chief Executive of Lai'Latif & Co Advocates, I have crafted a unique legal practice that not only excels in corporate and international taxation, and transactions law but also uplifts underprivileged women through a philanthropic wing powered by zakat. My dedication to social justice extends to my prominent roles on the boards of the Tax Justice Network (UK) and the International Lawyers Project. My expertise has been instrumental in shaping tax doctrine and practice in East Africa, as a member of the East Africa Law Society's inaugural Tax Law Committee. I am also a trainer with Capabuild, Rotterdam's premier tax capacity building organisation, imparting my knowledge of international tax norms and rules to revenue authorities in Botswana, Indonesia, and Kenya. As the visionary Chair and co-founder of the Committee on Fiscal Studies, I lead a team of brilliant minds in our quest to reform and strengthen tax systems in the global south. Through research, policy advocacy, capacity building, and tax trainings, I strive to bridge the knowledge gap and empower developing nations to build more robust and equitable fiscal systems. In October 2023 I was appointed by the Ministry of Information, Communications and Digital Economy of the Republic of Kenya to lead on developing a roadmap and regulations for creating an enabling environment for emerging technologies (AI, IoT, 5G) and data governance in Kenya. I have also designed for Tax Justice Network Africa an Anti-IFF Policy Tracker for AU Member States to pilot and evaluate the extent to which their laws, institutions and cross border exchange of information is robust in preventing IFFs.
Publication Details
Date Of Publication:
Author:
Lyla Latif
Country:
Indonesia
Languages: English
Category:
Tax and the International Financial ArchitectureTax and EquityGenderSocial Services
Resource Type:
Publications
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