Program News

Our seven-year International Governance, Accountability and Performance (IGAP) Program has successfully concluded, marking a significant milestone in our ongoing efforts to strengthen public sector performance auditing and oversight around the world.

In the IGAP program, CAAF and our Canadian partners worked with the supreme audit institutions (SAIs) and oversight committees of Guyana, Rwanda, Senegal, and Vietnam to enhance their capacity in performance auditing and oversight. Together, we aimed to contribute to improved transparency, effectiveness, accountability, and governance in the management of public resources and delivery of services for citizens in these countries.

What We Achieved Together

We are thrilled to see the results achieved by the participating SAIs and oversight bodies, including:

• Enhanced performance audit skills, leading to more impactful audit reports
• Expanded audit capacity, with larger performance audit departments and more audits completed
• Integration of gender equality and the UN Sustainable Development Goals into audit work, plus mainstreaming a gender perspective within the SAIs
• Improved engagement with the SAIs’ key stakeholders—auditees, oversight committees, civil society, and the media
• Stronger parliamentary oversight, with committees holding more effective hearings on performance audit reports

Program Highlights

To support the SAIs and oversight committees, we delivered a tailored mix of training, mentorship, and hands-on learning, designed to meet each country’s unique needs and contexts. Highlights from these activities included:

Fellowships – 37 auditors graduated from the Fellowship program. Each Fellow gained hands-on experience through a placement with a Canadian audit office, developed an audit plan or other project for implementation at their SAI, and returned home ready to be a leader in their SAI’s performance audit department.

Performance Audit Training – We delivered over 150 training sessions, reaching more than 2,500 participants from the SAIs. This included CAAF’s core audit courses, as well as new courses such as Auditing Extractive Industries, Data Analytics for Performance Auditors, and Your Audit Report and the Media. We also offered short executive-level overviews for SAI senior managers and customized workshops addressing SAIs' specific needs, to round out our comprehensive support.

Leaders Programs – In the Leaders Programs, participants worked on projects addressing a specific strategic need. All four partner SAIs participated in two of our Leaders Programs:

• Gender Mainstreaming – Participants learned about key concepts, tools, and strategies for integrating a gender perspective in their SAI. With mentoring and support from CAAF, they conducted a gender assessment of their office and developed a gender mainstreaming strategy and action plan, to advance equality and foster women’s empowerment within their institutions.
• Using the SAI Performance Measurement Framework (PMF) – Participants planned and managed an assessment of their office using the SAI PMF—a tool developed by the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) for conducting a holistic and evidence-based assessment against international standards and good practices. We began by providing training on the PMF methodology, in cooperation with the INTOSAI Development Initiative. Then CAAF and Canadian partners contributed to the planning process, took part in the assessments, and provided feedback as the participants wrote their assessment reports.

Oversight Committee Training – We supported oversight bodies through a variety of activities—multiple workshops for Public Accounts Committee members and staff in Guyana and Rwanda; an address to the Parliament of Rwanda and training for all its members; and working with delegations from Guyana and Vietnam, who came to observe and learn from Canadian practices and explore ways to improve their own.

Thank You to Our Partners!

Thank you to all those who contributed to the IGAP Program’s success, particularly the international participants and our Canadian partners.

Canadian partners volunteered to share their knowledge and expertise with the participants by hosting Fellowship placements, co-facilitating training and mentoring, contributing to the development of CAAF courses and resources, and meeting with Fellows and delegations to speak about their work.

The following offices hosted Fellowship placements during the IGAP Program:

The Office of the Auditor General of Alberta
The Office of the Auditor General of British Columbia
The Office of the Auditor General of Canada
The Office of the Auditor General of Manitoba
The Office of the Auditor General of Quebec
The City of Toronto Auditor General’s Office

We would also like to thank the staff at Global Affairs Canada and the high commissions and embassies of Canada and of our four partner countries for their support of the program.

 

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