Our International Governance, Accountability and Performance Program has a special focus on gender equality, environmental sustainability, and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The program offers training and resources to enable auditors and oversight committees to address these topics in their work and supports gender equality within our partner supreme audit institutions (SAIs). This aligns with Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy, the development plans of our partner countries, and the global effort to achieve the SDGs.
What is the connection between auditing, oversight and the SDGs?
SAIs and oversight committees play an important role in holding governments accountable for their commitments to the SDGs and other development priorities. As the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) says, “SAIs can, through their audits and consistent with their mandates and priorities, make valuable contributions to national efforts to track progress, monitor implementation, and identify improvement opportunities across the full set of the SDGs and their respective nations’ sustainable development efforts.” Audit findings and recommendations can also help governments improve the effectiveness of public programs and services related to the SDGs, in areas such as health, education, economic development, and environmental sustainability, and help ensure such services better respond to the needs and potential of women and girls.
How does CAAF help?
To support SAIs’ and oversight committees’ efforts to contribute to gender equality and the SDGs, the program:
- Provides training, like our Auditing Gender Equality course, as well as mentoring and tailored workshops in support of specific audits on the SDGs
- Develops methodology and resources, like our Practice Guide to Auditing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: Gender Equality and our series for civil society organizations, titled Collaborating for Change: How civil society organizations and audit offices can hold government accountable for the Sustainable Development Goals
- Requires Fellowship participants to develop a plan for a performance audit, to be conducted by their SAIs, on a topic that relates to one or more SDGs and mentors Fellows on how their audits can consider gender equality
- Works with parliamentary oversight bodies to raise their awareness of the importance of gender equality and support them in their role of reviewing performance audits on gender equality and the SDGs
- Provides mentoring, through a Leaders Program, to help SAIs develop and implement gender mainstreaming strategies and action plans designed to foster gender equality and create positive and sustainable change for their staff, both women and men
Additionally, we support gender equality by providing equal training opportunities for women and men, leading to opportunities for career advancement for both genders.
Resources
Auditing Gender Equality
- Practice Guide to Auditing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: Gender Equality
- Practice Guide to Auditing Gender Equality
- Audit Tips: 4 Facts You Should Know About Auditing Gender Equality
Auditing the SDGs
- INTOSAI Atlas on SDGs: Overview of reports on the SDGs published by INTOSAI member SAIs
- INTOSAI Development Initiative (IDI) resources on Auditing the SDGs
- Office of the Auditor General of Canada’s approach to considering the SDGs
- Auditing Progress Toward the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals: CAAF webinar with Kimberly Leach, Principal, Office of the Auditor General of Canada (add anchor link to specific webinar on archives page)
- Collaborating for Change: How civil society organizations and audit offices can hold government accountable for the Sustainable Development Goals