Item 5-B: Report of the Capacity Building Committee

ITEM 5-B: REPORT OF THE CAPACITY BUILDING COMMITTEE INTRODUCTION

During the 2016-2017 period, the Capacity Building Committee (CBC) sought to implement its action plan by the end of 2017. This action plan that was approved at the 50th Governing Board meeting in Maputo (Mozambique) includes 2 (two) aspects dealing, on the one hand, with institutional issues and on the other hand, with professional dimension capacity building in SAIs.

The first action aims to intensify relations between AFROSAI and African regional international organizations, and between INTOSAI, its regional groups and technical and financial partners. The second action is intended to increase the level of harmonization and compliance with ISSAI standards.

Each of these actions is broken down into activities assigned to the CBC Presidency, the AFROSAI Secretariat or some member SAIs of the CBC.

The implementation of the Action Plan since its adoption was marked by the decisions of the 50th AFROSAI Governing Board meeting, notably the adoption of the resolution recommending, among other actions, the competent AFROSAI organs, Language Sub-Groups and AFROSAI member SAIs to:

. establish a cooperation framework for the harmonization of the implementation of ISSAI standards and harmonization in the use of capacity building assessment tools in order to remove the existing disparities at the level of AFROSAI and the various Language Sub- Groups; . establish monitoring tools for the implementation of ISSAI standards; . promote and share best practices and experiences developed as part of efforts to upgrade ISSAI standards. "

This resolution impacts on two aspects in the action plan mentioned above, although it is a second action result intended to harmonize the level of compliance with ISSAI standards.

Among the constraints, CBC has notably suffered from the inability of its members to meet since its creation.

The achievements recorded over the subsequent period are described below:

BRIEFING ON THE EXECUTION OF THE CBC ACTION PLAN

I.1. Achievements under Action 1

The activities executed under this action consist in:

. participating in statutory meetings of regional international organizations to communicate on the role of SAIs; . Popularize the relevant resolutions on SAIs with African governments; . Lobby among technical and financial partners of African governments; . Organize a joint conference with OLACEFS;

A series of actions were executed for accomplishing each of these activities.

a. Participate in statutory meetings of RIO (regional international organizations) to communicate on the role of SAIs;

The implementation of this activity allows AFROSAI to sensitize member states of regional international organizations on the need for institutional capacity building of SAIs. To do this, the CBC undertook to make SAIs accountable per geographical area of integration. In this context, a proposal has been made through a letter by the Chief Judge of the Court of Accounts in Senegal, to some SAI members of the CBC. This proposal is as follows:

. Gabon / ECCAS . Mauritania / UMA . South Africa / SADC . Ghana and Senegal / ECOWAS.

Furthermore, as part of this activity, the CBC Presidency was able to obtain the support of the Senegalese Ministry of Foreign Affairs through a meeting organized with senior officials of this ministry. It requires sensitizing them on the role of AFROSAI, CBC and to obtain their support on access strategies into regional international organizations as well as in the preparation of framework documents for these institutions. The CBC undertook to work with the departments of that ministry in the development of a draft cooperation framework with regional international organizations.

Besides, the CBC Presidency is negotiating with the relevant authorities, for the organization of a "side event" during the upcoming summit of the Francophone International Organization (OIF) due in November 2016 in Madagascar. In this context, in cooperation with the UNDP Dakar Pole, advocacy documents for the institutional capacity buildings of African SAIs are about to be prepared.

b. Popularizing the relevant resolutions on SAIs with African governments;

The CBC is proposing that this activity should be taken to the level of action 2. In its execution, the CBC may build on the Language Sub-Groups in addition to the AFROSAI General Secretariat.

c. Organizing a joint conference with OLACEFS;

This will be done by means 0f promoting relations between AFROSAI and other INTOSAI regional groups. In doing so, the action plan provides for the organization of a meeting with at least one regional group. The Egyptian SAI was responsible for this activity. The actions it took allowed for the holding of a meeting with OLACEFS under the theme of capacity building.

This theme and the modalities of the meeting and the related terms of reference, must be validated together with the AFROSAI SG.

I.2. Achievements under action 2: Upgrade the level of compliance and harmonization with ISSAI standards

The objective of this action is to promote good practices in the implementation of ISSAIs. The expected result at the end of the AFROSAI strategic plan is that all SAIs in Africa should conduct an assessment of their compliance with ISSAI standards and adopt a plan to implement the ISSAI standards as well as adopt compliant policies and procedures in 2020.

Specific actions relating to this objective consisted notably in:

. Analyzing the results of the global IDI survey on the implementation of ISSAIs in Africa for a statement based on shortcomings and harmonization difficulties; . Ensuring adoption by the Governing Board of a resolution encouraging SAIs to apply iCATS by 2017; . Cooperating and supporting Language Sub-Groups in the implementation of the ISSAIs; . Conducting surveys and preparing reports on the progress made in ISSAI compliance using iCATS.

It should be noted that this action 2 was very much positively impacted by the adoption of the relevant resolution at the 50th Governing Board meeting. Consequently, this resolution helped to meet points 1 and 2. However, the possibility given to SAIs to make their own appraisal using the tools they themselves considered relevant, led to the review of the CBC action plan. Finally, starting point 3 should only be done if we need to start implementation. Actions necessary to cover this actions comprise:

. sent a correspondence to the Language Sub-Groups and copying the AFROSAI SG for an update on compliance appraisal by SAIs to ISSAIs; . Agree with the SG to organize a meeting to plan the implementation of appraisals; . Assess the support needs at the level of the carious SLG and agree on the nature of services in the support to be provided; . Compile lessons from evaluations conducted in the various Language Sub-Groups to uphold good practices.

FUTURE CHALLENGES AND ACTIVITIES In the coming years, the CBC intends to conduct the following activities:

. Participation in collaboration with the competent AFROSAI organs in the next INCOSAI and further reflection on the issues of professionalization of African SAIs and their role in assessing the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the UN member states; . implementation of assessment measures of actions provided by the AFROSAI SG; . organization of a meeting between CBC members: the general objectives of this meeting whose terms of reference have already been selected include:

 taking more ownership of the CBC action plan by the year 2017;  Reviewing, where applicable, the action plan taking into account the lessons learned from the Windhoek meeting and the conclusions of the XXII INCOSAI.