Program News

We are excited to be continuing our work in Vietnam, re-establishing our partnership with Guyana, and working for the first time with Burkina Faso and Rwanda.

Our new program, called the International Governance, Accountability and Performance program, is designed to help build the capacity of the supreme audit institutions (SAIs) and parliamentary oversight committees of these four countries. The seven-year program (2018-2025) will be undertaken with the financial support of the Government of Canada provided through Global Affairs Canada.

This program builds on our long history of international capacity building, which dates to 1980. Activities will include the long-running Fellowships, in which performance auditors come to Canada for nine months of training and on-the-job learning with a legislative audit office; Leaderships, in which participants complete short study missions to Canada and develop projects addressing strategic needs of their SAI or oversight committee; and delivery of our world-class courses and workshops for auditors and for members of oversight committees and parliamentary staff. We will also continue to develop new courses and resources to meet the SAIs’ and oversight committees’ needs, focusing especially on auditing gender equality, environmental sustainability, and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Our Canadian partners will once again be integral to our international program, as they have been since 1980. Our many partners include the Offices of the Auditors General of Canada and of several provinces, municipal audit offices, and other organizations and individuals. They will share their expertise and experience with the participants by hosting Fellowships, working with participants in Canada, delivering training abroad, and participating in the development of our course materials and methodology. Special thanks to the Auditors General of Canada, Alberta, British Columbia, and Quebec and to their staff for their early support in our assessment missions and hosting the 2018-19 Fellowships. We look forward to working with these offices and many others throughout the course of the program.

Assessment Missions

The program began this summer with assessment missions with each of the four countries. With Canadian partners, we met with the leaders of the SAIs, representatives of oversight committees, the Canadian High Commissions or Embassies, some of the SAIs’ key stakeholders in government and civil society, and other development partners to learn about the current practices and the capacity building needs of the SAIs and oversight committees. With this understanding of their starting points and objectives, we have begun working with the SAIs and oversight committees to develop long-term strategies for improvement and to plan our program’s support.

Burkina Faso: Jean-Emile Somda, First President, and Moumounou Dao, President, from the Burkina Faso Court of Accounts, came to Canada in August to launch our new partnership and meet with several of our partners.

Guyana: We are pleased to begin working with Guyana again. Guyana participated in our programs between 1998 and 2009 and the Auditor General, Deodat Sharma, is a 1999-2000 graduate Fellow.

Rwanda: We launched our new partnership in Rwanda in May and returned in August to conduct the assessment mission.

Vietnam: We are glad to continue our partnership with Vietnam, where we have been working with the SAI since 2008 and supported the creation of its performance audit unit in 2014.

The program’s capacity building activities are now beginning, with the first class of Fellows arriving in Canada in September and our first training abroad scheduled for this fall.

As we launch this program, the Foundation is delighted to be building new partnerships in these four countries and to be collaborating with the many Canadians who enrich the training, mentoring and resources we provide. “This program is an expression of several essential Canadian values, including the importance we place on governance and accountability, on gender equality and human rights, and on helping others around the world,” said the Foundation’s President and CEO, John Reed. “Thank you to Global Affairs Canada and all our partners for your support of this program and our mission to advance performance audit and oversight in the four participating countries. We look forward to achieving this goal together!”

 

Note: As of May 2019, our International Governance, Accountability and Performance Program is working with Senegal, instead of Burkina Faso. It was determined that security concerns in Burkina Faso would prevent us from effectively delivering the program there.

Program undertaken with the financial support of the Government of Canada provided through Global Affairs Canada.