The Office of the Auditor General's investigation of the management and review of the national follow-up of the sustainable development goals Document 3:3 (2020–2021) Front cover: Image of the sustainable development goals: United Nations Association of Norway Image of pin badge: Eivind Senneset, University of Bergen ISBN 978-82-8229-500-0 (PDF) Document 3:3 (2020–2021) Page 1 of 19 To the Storting With this, the Office of the Auditor General submits Document 3:3 (2020–2021) The Office of the Auditor General's investigation of the management and review of the national follow-up of the sustainable development goals. This document is structured as follows: The Office of the Auditor General's conclusions, refinement of conclusions, recommendations, the ministry's follow-up and the Office of the Auditor General's closing remarks Appendix 1: The Office of the Auditor General's letter to the Minister Appendix 2: The Minister's reply Appendix 3: Performance audit report with assessments The Office of the Auditor General uses the following terms for criticism, ranked according to highest severity: 1. Very serious is used to refer to circumstances where the consequences for society or the citizens concerned are very serious, for example risk to life or health. 2. Serious is used to refer to circumstances that could have major consequences for society or the citizens concerned, or where the sum of errors and deficiencies is so great collectively that the situation must be considered serious in itself. 3. Very reprehensible refers to circumstances that have less serious consequences, but which nevertheless concern matters of fundamental or major importance. 4. Reprehensible is used to characterise inadequate management where the consequences will not necessarily be serious. This could concern errors and deficiencies that have financial consequences, the infringement of regulations or matters that have been brought up previously but have still not been rectified. Office of the Auditor General, 17 November 2020 For the Board of Auditors General Per-Kristian Foss Auditor General Document 3:3 (2020–2021) Page 2 of 19 Contents 1 Conclusions ........................................................................................................................................ 6 2 Refinement of conclusions ................................................................................................................ 6 2.1 The national follow-up of the sustainable development goals has not been coordinated effectively enough ................................................................................................................................. 6 2.2 Norway does not have a comprehensive plan for implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the sustainable development goals ............................................................................................... 9 2.3 Inadequate involvement of Statistics Norway in work with the sustainable development goals ........ 10 2.4 Reporting does not provide information of sufficient quality to the Storting on the status and progress of the national follow-up of the sustainable development goals .......................................... 12 3 Recommendations ........................................................................................................................... 12 4 The ministry's follow-up ................................................................................................................... 13 5 Closing remarks ................................................................................................................................ 14 Appendix 1: The Office of the Auditor General's letter to the Minister Appendix 2: The Minister's reply Appendix 3: Report Document 3:3 (2020–2021) Page 3 of 19 Ministry of Local Government and Modernisation The Office of the Auditor General's investigation of the management and review of the national follow- up of the sustainable development goals Norway, together with all other UN member states, has endorsed resolution A/RES/70/01 Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (the 2030 Agenda). The 2030 Agenda, which contains the 17 sustainable development goals, is the world's joint work plan for ending poverty, combating inequality and stopping climate change before 2030. This agenda thus constitutes the main political track for dealing with the biggest national, regional and global challenges of our age. The resolution was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015. The 2030 Agenda includes 17 sustainable development goals and 169 targets that are effective from 1 January 2016. The 2030 Agenda makes it clear that the goals and targets will be of significance to decisions made by all countries over the next 15 years. According to the 2030 Agenda, the goals and targets are universal and will involve all the nations of the world, both industrial and developing countries. They are integrated and indivisible, and balance the three dimensions of sustainable development: economic, social and environmental. The UN has developed an indicator framework for all the targets in order to measure status and progress. Figure 1 is the official graphic representation of the sustainable development goals prepared by the UN. Figure 1 Summary of the 17 sustainable development goals in the 2030 Agenda Source: United Nations Association of Norway. The universal sustainable development goals and their associated targets are cross-sectoral in nature and mutually interlinked. The fact that the sustainable development goals and the targets are integrated means, for example, that targets relating to one goal in some instances also apply to other goals, that targets relating to one goal support the attainment of other targets and that some targets are prerequisites for attainment of other targets. In other cases, two targets may influence one another so that trade-offs have to be made between different considerations and political priorities. The 2030 Agenda makes it clear that the governments of the individual countries are responsible for following up and ensuring implementation at national, regional and global levels. This means that the governments of the individual countries must adapt the sustainable development goals to suit national circumstances by identifying particular challenges, establishing their own national targets in addition to the global ones, and integrating the goals in their national policies, plans and strategies. Efforts to facilitate the management, implementation and review of the 2030 Agenda and the sustainable development goals requires a national, comprehensive approach. It also requires horizontal and vertical coordination for coherent implementation, both in the government sector and between the government sector and other parts of society. To follow up Document 3:3 (2020–2021) Page 4 of 19 the sustainable development goals, offices for national statistics must also play a key role, as data and statistics are crucial for measuring development and reporting status at all levels. Norway has endorsed the 2030 Agenda, and the government has undertaken to report annually to the Storting on the follow-up of the sustainable development goals. The Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee gave its approval to the 2030 Agenda when discussing White Paper 24 (2016–2017) Common Responsibility for a Common Future – The Sustainable Development Goals and Norway's Development Policy — see Recommendation 440 S (2016–2017). Among other things, the committee pointed out that the sustainable development goals are an obligation for all countries. The white paper refers to the fact that performance reporting is an important principle in the 2030 Agenda, and that access to verifiable statistics is a prerequisite for measuring progress on the targets and indicators for the 17 goals in the agenda. In Recommendation 440 S (2016–2017), a majority in the committee indicates that it considers Norway's reporting to the UN on the Norwegian follow-up of the sustainable development goals to be positive, but also requires the government to submit to the Storting a plan relating to how Norway will implement the sustainable development goals, including at the national level. Auditing of the sustainable development goals is a cross-cutting priority in the strategic plan for the global coalition of national audit offices, International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI), for the 2017–2022 period. As audit agencies, national audit offices are considered key stakeholders for following up and reporting on countries' follow-up of the 2030 Agenda at the national level. Hence for audits of the 2030 Agenda and the sustainable development goals, there is differentiation between audits relating to preparedness and audits relating to implementation. This audit relates to national preparedness for implementing, following up and reporting on progress and results for the sustainable development goals. This is a system audit that primarily covers organisational means. The INTOSAI Development Initiative1 (IDI) compiled in 2018 presents a framework for auditing nations' preparedness for implementation of the sustainable development goals, entitled Auditing Preparedness for Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals – A Guidance for Supreme Audit Institutions. When formulating this audit, this framework has been used as a basis with adaptations in line with national circumstances. Objective of the investigation