Background

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which theUnited Nations Members States jointly committed to inSeptember 2015, provide an ambitious and long-termagenda on a broad range of vital issues.

The UN Members State declaration on the SDGs,“Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda For SustainableDevelopment,” noted that “Our Governments have theprimary responsibility for follow-up and review, at thenational, regional and global levels, in relation to theprogress made in implementing the goals and targets overthe coming fifteen years. ”

SAIs can, through their audits and consistent with theirmandates and priorities, make valuable contributions tonational efforts to track progress, monitor implementationand identify improvement opportunities across the full setof the SDGs.

INTOSAI has decided to include SDGs quite centrally in itsstrategic plan 2017 -2022 as a cross cutting theme. In itscurrent discussions building up to the INCOSAI in December2016, INTOSAI also identified four approaches throughwhich INTOSAI and SAIs can contribute to theimplementation of SDGs.

As a contribution to the INTOSAI efforts and SAI efforts insupporting implementation of SDGs the IDI, in cooperationwith INTOSAI Knowledge Sharing Committee (KSC), launcheda programme on ‘Auditing Sustainable Development Goals’in 2015. A team of key stakeholders gathered in Vienna,Austria to plan this programme and draw links between thisprogramme and the overall efforts happening at theINTOSAI level.

1

Programme Objective

High quality audits of sustainable development goals by SAIs.

Cooperation Partners

INTOSAI Bodies, SAIs, INTOSAI regions, UN

Auditing Sustainable Development Goals

2

INTOSAI, SAIs & SDGs

The INTOSAI believes that SAIs can contribute to SDGsby providing advice, through assurance engagementsand by conducting performance audits and reviews. TheSAIs can also contribute by leading by example in beingmodels of transparency and accountability.

INTOSAI plans to support and encourage its memberSAIs in this regard by:

- Awareness raising and advocacy- Aggregating results of SAI work done in this area- Providing methodological support

In order to provide support to its member, INTOSAI willconsider the following support processes and tools:

- Guidance and standards- Community of practice- Think Tank on SDGs- Cooperative Audits- Lessons Learned documentation- Regular product review

2. PerformanceAudit of

programmesthat contribute

to SDGs

3. Assessing and supporting SDG

16

4. Being modelof transparency

and accountability

1. Auditing national systems

of follow-up

Four Approaches to SDGs

IDI-KSC Auditing SDGs Programme

As INTOSAI bodies the IDI and KSC will support andencourage SAIs to contribute to SDGs byparticipating in awareness raising and advocacy. AsSDGs have been recently adopted at UN level andby all nations, this would be the right time for SAIsto ascertain the preparedness of their country levelsystems in keeping their national commitments. Assuch this programme will provide methodologicalsupport to SAIs for conducting ISSAI basedperformance audit on preparedness forimplementation.This piece of work can be manly categorised underapproach 1 of INTOSAI – Auditing national systemsof follow-up.Support will be provided through development anddissemination of guidance, providing a communityplatform for networking and interaction, facilitatinga cooperative audit and documenting lessonslearned.

Lessonslearned and

audit results

2019

ISSAI basedcooperative

performanceaudit on

preparedness

2017-2018

Guidance onauditing

preparedness

2016

Approach 1. Auditing national follow-up systems

Advocacy & Awareness Raising

Community of Practice

3

The guidance on audit of preparedness forimplementation of SDGs will provide detailed advise on‘how to’ use the auditing complexity model through aISSAI based performance audit process. The auditmodel will look at systemic preparedness in terms ofpolicy framework, institutional mechanisms, follow-upand reporting systems and capacity. The audit modelwill include key high level issues based on commonreporting guidelines for Voluntary National Reviews atthe UN High Level Political Forum (HPLF). The auditmodel will also integrate and look at ‘equity’ as a crosscutting theme. This will be aligned to the HPLF 2016theme – Ensuring that no one is left behind.

A global team of resource persons from SAIs, INTOSAIbodies, IDI, UN and some INTOSAI regions will developthe guidance between May and October 2016. Theguidance will be reviewed by a reference team beforesubmission and discussion at INCOSAI in December2016. The guidance will be developed in English andtranslated into Arabic, French and Spanish. It will beavailable on the IDI-KSC community portal.

Guidance on audit of preparedness for implementation of SDGs

Policy & enabling environment

Creating ownership

Incorporating in national

frameworks

Intergration of social,

economic & environmental

dimensions

Definition of baselines & indicators

Thematic analysis

Institutional mechanisms

Ensuring that no one is left behind

SAI Commitment

Agreement with SAI leadership

Workshop on subject matter and methodology

Focus onsubjectmatter & methodo-logy

E-facilitation of development ofaudit plan

Support to SAI auditteams for auditplanning

Audit Review Meeting

Support for finalising auditreport

QualityAssurance

Independentassurance ofaudit quality

Cooperative audit of preparedness for implementation of SDGs

As a part of this programme 40 SAIs fromdifferent INTOSAI regions will be providedblended support in conducting an ISSAI basedperformance audit on preparedness forimplementation of SDGs. Agree oncommitments will be the critical first step. Theguidance developed in 2016 will be used totrain SAI teams, support and quality assureaudits. SAIs of 21 countries undergoing theHPLF reviews will be invited to participate.Besides these, other SAIs will be invited basedon the following criteria – SAI commitment,readiness at SAI and country level, ability toinfluence others and create impact in theirenvironments. The audits will be carried during2017 and 2018.

4

The IDI and KSC will facilitate a process todocument lessons learned from the cooperativeaudits. These will include lessons from theimplementation of the audit model as well aslessons from the IDI cooperative audit model.The lessons learned document will be globallyavailable through the IDI-KSC community portalin 2019.

While the lessons learned exercise will feed intothe guidance document, the audit results can beaggregated at INTOSAI level for providingfeedback to UN.

Community of Practice on Auditing SDGs

In order to provide a platform forinformation exchange, knowledge sharing,interaction and capacity developmentsupport related to auditing SDGs, the IDIand INTOSAI KSC have set up a web basedcommunity of practice (CoP) on auditingSDGs. The CoP is available on the IDI-KSCcommunity portal and can be accessed atwww.intosaicommunity.org .

Lessons Learned & Audit Results

Advocacy & Awareness Raising

The IDI and KSC will also endeavour tocontribute to the advocacy and awarenessraising efforts of INTOSAI. AuditingSustainable Development Goals will bediscussed in IDI’s ongoing regional meetingswith SAI management and key stakeholders.IDI-KSC will also contribute with articles andinformation to the newsletter for INCOSAIand include an update on this programme tothe INTOSAI journal. At the INCOSAI, the IDIand KSC will organized breakout sessions anddifferent events at the booths to raiseawareness. The CoP available on the IDI-KSCcommunity portal will also be used.

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Outcomes & Long Term Strategy

Outcomes

• Participating SAIs conduct ISSAI based performance audits asper guidance and issue timely reports

• Other SAIs also use the guidance and audit model to conductaudit of preparedness

• SAIs conduct high quality audits of SDGs on a regular basis,thereby contributing to the implementation of SDGs in thelong run

Strategy

• SAI commitment, support for SAI team, cooperation withINTOSAI regions for monitoring and follow-up

• Involvement of INTOSAI regions in the programme to helpthem facilitate similar support at regional level

• Include SDGs in the SAI strategic management framework andfacilitate SAIs in using this framework for their strategic andoperational planning

Country governance, political, social, cultural + public financial management environment

SAI contribution to impact

SAI outcomesSAI outputsSAI organisation systems + professional staff capacity

SAI institutional capacity

Independence + legal framework

Internal governance and ethics +

SAI core services

FA standards, process, quality + results

CA standards, process, quality + results

other core services + results

Judgement process + results

Corporate services

HRM + Professional staff development

AC

accountability reporting

D E

Audits recommendations implemented

Public confidence in government financial systems

F

Stakeholders engagement in accountability

Value & Benefits delivered by contributing to SDGs

Communication and Stakeholder management + results

SAI capacity

Public confidence in the SAI

Improve compliance with laws and regulations

SAI culture + leadership

B

Value and benefits of SAI

PA standards, process, quality + results