Auditoría Coordinada Gobernanza de Fronteras – Sumario Ejecutivo con enfoque ambiental

Report ID: 286

En el marco de las actividades del Comité de Creación de Capacidades (CCC) de la Organización Latinoamericana y del Caribe de Entidades Fiscalizadoras Superiores (OLACEFS), las EFS de Argentina, Bolivia, Brasil (EFS Coordinadora), Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, México, Paraguay, Perú y República Dominicana realizaron una auditoría coordinada a  para evaluar el nivel de implementación de buenas prácticas de gobernanza en las políticas de seguridad pública y desarrollo en las regiones fronterizas de sus respectivo países, con el fin de mejorar la implementación y gestión de acciones gubernamentales en estas regiones.

Esta auditoría contó con el apoyo técnico de la Cooperación Alemana a través de GIZ – Deutsche Gesellschaf für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH – como parte del proyecto Fortalecimiento del Control Externo en el Área Ambiental, que se está implementando en asociación con la EFS de Brasil y la OLACEFS.

Para este trabajo, las EFS participantes aplicaron el Índice de Gobernanza de Políticas Nacionales de Fronteras (iGPNFron) y el informe conjunto se centra en la calidad de los factores estructurales vinculados a la gobernanza de las políticas nacionales de fronteras y no en el desempeño de la gestión de estas políticas.

FUENTE: https://www.olacefs.com/auditorias-coordinadas/

Coordinated Audit of Protected Areas (1st edition) - Executive Summary

Report ID: 311

Protected Areas (PA) are created considering the relevant natural characteristics of the territories, with defined geographical limits, and as a response to the need for biodiversity conservation. These areas are recognised by the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) as a global strategy for biodiversity conservation. In this sense, the international commitment establishes targets for the protection of terrestrial and marine areas that must be achieved through the implementation of ecologically representative and effectively managed systems of protected areas.

In this context, within the framework of the activities of the Special Technical Commission on the Environment(COMTEMA) of the Latin American and Caribbean Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (OLACEFS), the Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil (Coordinating SAI), Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay (Coordinating SAI), Peru and Venezuela carried out a coordinated audit. This audit was supported by the German Cooperation GIZ.

The audit assessed whether Latin America's terrestrial protected areas have the institutional, regulatory and operational conditions necessary to achieve the objectives for which they were created. As part of this audit it was possible to evaluate 1120 protected areas in a standardised manner, which made it possible to produce a unique diagnosis of public policy on biodiversity conservation in the region.

To analyse the governance of protected areas, SAI Brazil created INDIMAPA, a method for the Evaluation of the Implementation and Management of Protected Areas. This georeferenced tool uses indicators and indexes which are displayed on maps, in addition to allowing the classification of protected areas into three ranges: red, yellow and green, corresponding respectively to the low, medium and high level of management implementation.

In this way, based on the coordinated audit, the society and the Control Institutions will be able to follow the evolution in the administration of the environmental public patrimony represented by the protected areas.

Source: https://www.olacefs.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Executive-Summary-Auditon-Protected-Areas-of-Latin-America-web.pdf

*This report is also available in spanish in the catalogue.

Ibero-american Coordinated Audit on Sustainable Development Goal 5 Gender Equality - Preparedness of governments for the implementation of SDG 5 (Executive Summary)

Report ID: 315

In 2014, the first coordinated audit on gender equality and equity in OLACEFS began, with the participation of the SAIs of Chile, Costa Rica and Puerto Rico. The XXVI General Assembly of OLACEFS, in 2016, approved the proposal of the Citizen Participation Working Group to carry out a new gender audit.

The audit was carried out in a coordinated manner and aimed to assess the preparedness of the national governments of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Spain, Uruguay, Venezuela and the local government of Bogotá, Colombia, to implement Sustainable Development Goal 5.

 The specific objectives defined were:

1. To verify that the governments assessed have taken action to adapt ODS 5 to the national context;

2. To verify that governments have identified and guaranteed the resources and capacities (means of implementation) necessary to achieve the goals of ODS 5; and

3. Verify that governments have established mechanisms to monitor, review and report on progress in implementing SDG 5 in their countries.

In order to meet the proposed objectives, a Gender Equality Governance Assessment Scale (ODS 5) was generated to guide the action of the audit teams, using a tool to measure effectiveness called the "Integrated Gender Index". The tool made it possible to assess whether governments' efforts are aligned and coordinated to provide comprehensive responses to the needs and priorities for achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls.

Based on the integrated gender index, it was concluded that at the level of Latin America and the Caribbean, considering the evaluation of the 3 axes for the 15 national governments, they have reached a degree of effectiveness of 65% in the preparation of the implementation of SDG5, gender equality, are in a development stage with respect to the adoption of processes and mechanisms, and identification of resources and capacities necessary to ensure the implementation of SDG5.

Source: https://www.olacefs.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/REPORT-SDG-5.pdf

* The report is also available in spanish

** The report of the first gender audit is also available in this catalogue:  https://intosai-cooperativeaudits.org/catalog/report/auditora-coordinada-sobre-el-tema-de-equidad-de-gnero

COORDINATED AUDIT ON GENDER EQUALITY PERFORMED BY THE SUPREME AUDIT INSTITUTIONS OF PUERTO RICO, CHILE AND COSTA RICA (1st gender audit in OLACEFS)

Report ID: 329

The first “Coordinated Audit on Gender Equality and Equity”  of the Latin American and Caribbean Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (OLACEFS for its acronym in Spanish),was conducted as part of the action lines incorporated into the work plan of the Technical Commission for Citizen Participation (CTPC) and was supported by the German Cooperation (Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH), through the OLACEFS-GIZ program.

This Coordinated Audit began in 2014 with the participation of  the SAIs of Chile, Costa Rica and Puerto Rico that resulted in the signature of a Memorandum of Understanding in November the same year. This Memorandum was based on each SAI authority’s interest in performing an audit of this nature, specifically in the areas of education, health and employment, thus contributing with the fulfillment of international commitments made by each of the participating countries in this audit and in turn positioning at the level of OLACEFS on this matter.

The audit analyzed the progress in gender equity and equality in Puerto Rico, Chile and Costa Rica. At first, the audit on a subject or a specific program related to gender equity and equality was carried out on a national level by each participating SAI.

Specific Objectives of the audit:

a) To verify the progress in the implementation of one topic or program linked with the subject of gender equality and equity, in which each participating SAI of this audit will make the corresponding selection, according to their criteria of expertise.

b) To identify and present the common indicators results connected to the topic axis of education, health and employment related to the commitments acquired in international conventions.

c) To determine the criteria that would allow evaluating or assessing the results obtained in the measurements through applied common indicators, linked to the axis of education, health and employment.

As part of the audit, the SAIs of Puerto Rico, Chile and Costa Rica developed a Gender Equity Index, by which monitoring could be provided to a number of indicators linked with the fields of education, health and employment to demonstrate the progress in gender equity and equality in those countries in the period 2009-2013. All these within the framework of international agreements signed by the participating countries of this audit, such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the Millennium Development Goals. Because of the implementation of the Gender Equity Index (GEI), it was determined that countries showed progress on gender equity and equality between 2009 and 2013 (2012 in the case of Puerto Rico).

The results of a gender audit, among others, are:

- The evaluation of the implications, for both women and men in any included action, of legislation, programs and public policies to eliminate differences. - Detection of differences and serious problems. - The consideration of opinion of the personnel and the service users (citizens) regarding the achievements and reach of gender equality.

Likewise, the coordinated audit is aligned with the ISSAI 12 -The Value and Benefit of the SAI’s-, making difference in the lives of citizens given the fact that the participant SAI’s act to the benefit of the public interest given the importance of this matter and work on gender issue based on the government institutions that have the responsibility to report the accounts

Source: https://www.olacefs.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Informe_Ge%cc%81nero_Ingle%cc%81s.pdf

Parallel Audit on reading literacy in Austria and in Slovenia

Report ID: 333

In 2019 the Austrian Court of Audit (SAI Austria) and the Court of Audit of the Republic of Slovenia (SAI Slovenia) agreed to engage in a joint project focusing on reading literacy in children in Austria and Slovenia in the period from 2014 to 2018. For this purpose they decided to carry out a parallel performance audit, based on a set of common reference points.

Both Austria and Slovenia pledged to ensure that all youth achieve literacy by 2030 within the scope of the UN sustainable development goal 4 as a necessary skill for the development of all other forms of literacy, such as functional literacy, digital literacy, scientific literacy, technological literacy and academic literacy, to name a few, reading literacy is crucial for the personal and individual empowerment of each individual. It enables active participation of the individual in all areas of life and significantly improves the choices and possibilities for one's wellbeing and economic independence.

Both supreme audit institutions chose PISA study, the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment, intended to evaluate educational systems by measuring 15-year-old school pupils' scholastic performance on mathematics, science, and reading as a reference point of the joint project. Both countries have been participating in the study for many years and the majority of the children in both countries reach the age of 15 years upon completion of compulsory primary education programmes. Thereby the results of the study offer valuable information and insights not only on the children's achievements but also on the role, impact and efficiency of the national education systems and policies in developing reading literacy in children.

Approaches for the audit

The  Sai of Austria looked closely at the promotion of reading skills in primary and lower secondary schools in the school years 2014/15 to 2017/18.  The audited entities were the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research, the provincial school boards/education directorates of Lower Austria and Salzburg and the provinces of Lower Austria and Salzburg. The audit was aimed at presenting the development of the reading proficiency of children as well as assessing the objectives and provisions with regard to the reading literacy of Austrian children, the organizational implementation of the promotion of reading skills in schools as well as measures and resources used to increase reading literacy.

The SAI of Austria addressed the lack of a comprehensive strategy on the improvement of reading literacy in primary schools and lower secondary schools and sees considerable room for improvement with regard to the promotion of reading skills in schools.

The  Sai of Slovenia chose a system-based approach to identify the factors and their impact on developing reading literacy in children in Slovenia in the period from 2014 to 2018.  The audited entities were the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport, the Ministry of Culture, the National Education Institute Slovenia and the Slovenian Book Agency. The audit was aimed to assess whether the goals and activities for developing reading literacy in children were designed and planned adequately, and whether these activities were performed efficiently. The Court of Audit expressed an opinion that the auditees have been efficient in part in designing, planning and performing activities for developing reading literacy in children and issued several recommendations to improve the operations in the future.

Detailed information on audits and both audit reports are available at both SAIs websites. This was a parallel audit without a joint report but with a joint press release taken as basis for this abstract to provide the context and methodology of the audit.

Source: http://www.rs-rs.si/fileadmin/user_upload/Datoteke/Revizije/2020/Bralna-pismenost/EN/Reading_Literacy-Press_Release.pdf