OLACEF (The Organization of Latin American and Caribbean Supreme Audit Institutions) recently released a blog post on how SAIs can contribute to national SDG followup and review.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted by UN member states in September 2015. Governments are primarily responsible for reporting on the implementation progress of the 2030 Agenda and conduct Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs).
The blog explains how based on OLACEFs recent analysis of the 2020 VNRs and discussions during P4R (Partners 4 Review) network meetings and other P4R organized events, OLACEF has identified at least six ways how SAIs can contribute to SDG follow-up and review:
- By conducting SDG preparedness audits
- By conducting SDG implementation audits
- By contributing to the VNR
- By auditing the VNR
- By facilitating stakeholder engagement
- By mainstreaming the SDGs into audit activities
The first three listed have become common by now.
In contributing to the VNR (contribution 3), in most cases SAIs performed audits to assess the government's level of preparedness to implement SDGs. The blog listed Samoa as one of the countries who not only described the SAIs contribution in the report but also invited them to contribute to its contents. It mentions how the Samoa Audit Office as the Samoa SAI is also a permanent observer in the coordinating SDG Taskforce.
To read the full blog post click here.