By Ruth Verika NIOBE*
With a few weeks to go before the 5th session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (3-13 August 2026, New York), the United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation is entering a critical phase. Initiated by the African Group in 2023, substantive negotiations began in August 2025 and will continue until 2027 — with four more sessions planned after August, including the next one in Nairobi from 30 November to 11 December 2026. This initiative has received massive support — 110 countries in favor, 8 against, 43 abstentions when voting on the Terms of Reference in August 2024 — but between the legitimacy of the vote and actual weight in the negotiations, a gap is widening, particularly for French-speaking Central Africa.
It is under the impetus of the African Group, with Nigeria as a spokesperson on behalf of the G77 and China, that the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution in November 2023 launching negotiations towards a Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation — the first attempt to build a binding multilateral tax framework under the auspices of the United Nations, breaking away from decades of governance dominated by the OECD and its predominantly Northern members.
The ambition is clear: to strengthen source taxation rights, especially on digital and cross-border services; improve the fight against illicit financial flows and multinational tax evasion; align tax cooperation with the Sustainable Development Goals; and create fairer dispute resolution mechanisms for developing countries.
The vote on the draft Terms of Reference in August 2024 revealed an obvious political geography: 110 countries supported the text, including almost all of the African continent. On the other side, 8 countries voted against — Canada, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, United Kingdom, United States — while 43 countries, mainly EU and OECD members, chose to abstain. France, Germany, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands are among this group. These are not neutral positions: abstention, in this context, signifies a refusal to validate a process that questions the tax architecture from which these countries benefit the most.
This numerical balance of power is useful to know. It confirms the existence of a global majority. It also indicates that resistance is organized, technically equipped, and focused on specific points: the future primacy of the UN Convention over existing bilateral treaties, and effective taxation of large fortunes.
The Convention represents a strategic opportunity for African tax administrations to contribute to international rules that reflect their realities and needs. The Terms of Reference explicitly provide for four categories of non-state stakeholders invited to the negotiations: intergovernmental organizations, civil society organizations (CSOs), academic institutions, and the private sector. Interested parliamentarians are also invited.
It is in the French-speaking linguistic space that the deficit of engagement is most visible. In the sessions of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee, the available reports show the positions of Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Zambia, Egypt, Senegal, or Botswana. French-speaking Central African countries — Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, CAR, Chad — are almost absent from documented speeches, but some are present and participate in working groups. They voted in favor. But voting for and influencing the final text are two very different acts.
Four sessions have taken place since 2024. The fifth, scheduled from 3 to 13 August in New York, is expected to finalize positions on the most disputed articles of the text — notably Article 5 on the fair allocation of taxation rights, and protocols on the taxation of cross-border services and dispute resolution. It is during this session that much of the substance of the Convention will be decided, before consolidated drafts are submitted to the General Assembly.
An ambitious text would allow African States to mobilize more domestic resources to finance infrastructure, education, and health, reducing dependence on external aid. A weakened text — stripped of its commitments on source taxation or large fortunes in favor of future non-binding protocols — would reproduce, in another form, the architecture that the African Group is precisely seeking to overcome.
For French-speaking Central African countries in particular, the stakes in the coming weeks are twofold: strengthening the presence and technical quality of government delegations in New York, and activating a national civil society capable of supporting this work — not on the sidelines of the negotiations, but upstream.
About Ruth Vérika NIOBE
As a consultant in public finance and private sector development based in Yaoundé, Ruth Vérika Niobe primarily works in French-speaking Central Africa, in the CEMAC and OHADA spaces. With six years of experience, she works at the intersection of domestic revenue mobilization, SME competitiveness, and development financing. She has assisted agro-industrial companies in developing bankable business plans, contributed to performance diagnostics of programs funded by the EU and AFD, and supported work on fiscal decentralization and budget transparency. A certified PEFA practitioner (World Bank) and TADAT candidate (IMF), she is currently engaged in tax compliance audit missions in the banking and financial sector at the STTP Consulting firm accredited by CEMAC, and in the design of the Central African Regional Investment Fair (FRI-AC) as part of the EU-funded PAIRIAC program. Holding a Master’s degree in Public Finance, specializing in Taxation and Public Accounting (University of Yaoundé II, Higher Program of Specialization in Public Finance), she works in French and English.
