Why tampon tax removals haven’t worked

Twenty years ago, Kenya did something no other country had done before – it removed the sales tax on period products. The move was supposed to reduce the price of these essential items in a country where two-thirds of women and girls cannot afford them. Kenyan authorities received global praise and dozens of countries followed suit. But results were mixed.

READ MORE: How the fight against the tampon tax failed to fix period poverty

READ MORE: What is the tampon tax and which countries have axed it?

Context spent months analyzing data from Kenya and around the world to understand whether removing tax leads to greater access to period products. We found tax cuts alone did not necessarily lead to price drops.

This video is part of a series supported by the Wellspring Philanthropic Fund