Our International Governance, Accountability and Performance Program provides capacity building for the supreme audit institutions (SAIs) and parliamentary oversight committees of four countries—Guyana, Rwanda, Senegal, and Vietnam—to help them increase the effectiveness of their performance auditing and oversight practices. Its ultimate goal is to contribute to improved transparency, effectiveness, accountability, and governance in government’s management of public resources and delivery of services for citizens, with a focus on development priorities including gender equality, environmental sustainability, and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The program is undertaken with the financial support of the Government of Canada provided through Global Affairs Canada. The four countries were selected with Global Affairs Canada, on the basis of Global Affairs Canada’s priorities and our collective knowledge and experience in these countries and regions.
In each country, working with the senior leaders of the SAI, we develop a work plan that takes into consideration the SAI’s strategic plan, unique capacity-building needs, and priorities, as well as the country’s parliamentary oversight practices. The work plans are also informed by our involvement with the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) and its regional organizations, which enhances our knowledge of regional needs and priorities and enables us to effectively coordinate our activities with other organizations.
Based on the country work plans, we deliver a tailored mix of activities for each country, designed to build capacity at the SAI among individual auditors and at the institutional level, to build capacity of oversight committee members and staff, and to strengthen the relationships between the SAI and the oversight committee. Activities are held in Canada and abroad and delivered with our Canadian partners.
The program’s principal activities include the following:
Fellowships: In the Fellowship component, performance auditors come to Canada for nine months. The Fellows join audit teams at Canadian legislative audit offices, participate in professional development courses, and write a plan for a performance audit to be carried out at their SAI. Read more
Leaders Programs: Participants complete short study missions to Canada and develop a project that they will implement at home, focusing on a specific area of strategic need, such as multi-year audit planning or quality control and assurance. For each study mission, we design a tailored program of meetings with Canadian experts, visits to audit offices and other institutions, and mentoring and support from our staff and Associates. Read more
Courses and methodology for SAIs: The program draws on the Foundation’s professional training materials and methodology and adapts our training to meet the SAIs’ unique needs. Topics covered include, but are not limited to, performance auditing (fundamentals and advanced levels), environmental auditing, auditing gender equality, evidence gathering and analysis, and effective report writing, as well as stakeholder communications and working effectively with oversight committees. Partners from Canadian audit offices frequently co-facilitate courses and contribute to the development of our methodology resources. Where appropriate, we also collaborate with the INTOSAI regional organizations to deliver training.
Mentoring and other support for SAIs: Working with Canadian partners, we provide mentoring to help the SAIs put their newly acquired skills and knowledge into practice and produce sustainable results. Mentoring may be in support of specific performance audits (particularly those planned by the Fellows), in follow-up to Leaderships, or for other projects. We also participate in quality assurance reviews of the SAIs, to help them assess their practices against international standards and identify priorities for improvement.
Capacity building for oversight committees and parliamentary staff: We deliver workshops to meet the specific needs of the committees and aligned with the election cycle. We offer an orientation workshop for newly formed oversight committees and address other training topics as required, including strategies for preparing for hearings, asking effective questions, and conducting follow-up. As in our training for SAIs, the international program draws on the Foundation’s parliamentary oversight resources and adapts our support for the unique circumstances of the oversight committee. We engage Canadian partners to co-facilitate the courses. We also bring oversight committees and SAIs together in joint workshops to discuss how they can work more effectively together and better communicate with one another.
Engagement in international events: We support our partner SAIs and oversight committees to be internationally engaged. We sponsor individuals to participate in or co-facilitate regional or international training, and to attend selected events such as meetings of the INTOSAI Working Group on Environmental Auditing (WGEA) and INTOSAI Development Initiative (IDI) conferences on auditing the SDGs. This creates additional learning and leadership opportunities for our participants and strengthens the impact of our programming. We also attend and make presentations at INTOSAI regional organizations’ annual meetings and other conferences and collaborate on training events, research initiatives and other projects.
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