African Voice

AFROSAI is contributing with its African positions to the International Congress of Supreme Audit Institutions (INCOSAI), held every three years by the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI). AFROSAI developed two African position papers on the two key topics which were discussed in December 2016 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates:

• How can AFROSAI contribute to the United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including good governance and strengthening the fight against corruption?
• The professionalisation of auditing

In representing a common voice of all African supreme audit institutions (SAIs), the position papers identify the crucial need for increasing the involvement of SAIs considerably if the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are to be achieved. The papers also express AFROSAI’s view that professionalisation is particularly important for the African continent, since many SAIs face challenges on the individual, organisational and systemic level.

The deliberations at the congress and the resolutions taken will guide AFROSAI’s future work, supported by the GFG in Africa programme, in assisting its member SAIs in facing these challenges. 

ATAF continues to represent the voice of African tax administrations in global debates: the most recent of these debates are the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes, the OECD’s Committee on Fiscal Affairs and the Subregional Workshop on Curbing IFFs of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).

During the Third International Conference on Financing for Development in Addis Ababa in 2015, ATAF hosted a well-received side event to discuss ways of funding the African Agenda 2063.

As an African organisation of parliamentary Public Accounts Committees, AFROPAC has obliged itself in his strategic plan 2019-2023 to focus on creating an African voice for budget oversight committees. Within the last years, AFROPAC was therefore piloting sub-regional trainings and conferences on accountability and the parliamentary budget cycle to create space for peer-exchange and forming a common understanding on the topic. With its mission statement AFROPAC is promoting “one voice” for accountability and transparency in Africa. Bi-annual general meetings of AFROPAC are used by its members to issue declarations with leading objectives for all African countries on fighting illicit financial flows, specifically on anti-corruption and debt management. Together with other stakeholders like ATAF and AFROSAI, AFROPAC is committed to advocacy on regional and international level.

CABRI contributes to the global exchange of ideas to foster new thinking and develop solutions to the most pressing developmental challenges. For instance, in August 2018, CABRI participated in World Water Week to explore ways in which institutions can become more effective and access new sources of finance for the water sector. This is based on the premise that water is key to future prosperity, and that together, we can achieve a water wise world.

Another example is the participation of CABRI in the 2016 Conference on Aid and Public Expenditure (CAPE) held in London on 19 and 20 October. The conference was framed as a consensus building exercise on ways that development assistance (aid) can be delivered more effectively in the era of the Sustainable Development Goals. CABRI’s contribution to the conference focussed on the progress that has been made by development partners (donors) in their use of country systems in the delivery of aid, and ways that even greater progress can be made.