The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has formally endorsed the Coalition on Tax Expenditure Reform (COATE), becoming the first international organisation to back the initiative.
The stakes are considerable. Governments globally forgo an estimated $4 trillion annually through tax exemptions, deductions, and preferential rates — one of the largest yet least scrutinised sources of revenue forgone in public finance. With fiscal space tightening across both high- and lower-income economies, pressure is mounting to bring greater transparency and accountability to this largely opaque area of tax policy.
The COATE, launched in 2025 by the International Institute for Sustainable Development, the Council on Economic Policies, the German Institute of Development and Sustainability, the International Centre for Tax and Development, and ODI Global, is currently working on the adoption of minimum standards on tax expenditure reporting as a practical first step toward systemic reform. UNDP’s support, alongside the endorsement of Brazil, France, Guinea, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Spain, and the United Kingdom, strengthens that push ahead of the next major political windows at the G7 and G20.
As Orria Goñi, Head of Public Finance for SDGs at UNDP’s Sustainable Finance Hub, puts it: “Tax expenditure reform sits at the heart of our ongoing work on fiscal policy coherence, and we believe COATE is well positioned to bring together exactly the kind of complementary expertise — analytical, policy-facing, and country-grounded — that can translate this mandate into meaningful results.”