On September 4, the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) signed a technical cooperation agreement for joint action in the areas of climate, gender equality, digital transformation, and development financing.  The objective is to facilitate cooperation and strengthen collaboration between INTOSAI and UNDP in fields of common interest to the organizations. 

The meeting was attended by the president of the Federal Court of Accounts - Brazil (TCU), who also chairs INTOSAI, Minister Bruno Dantas, and the longest-serving member of the Court of Accounts, Minister Walton Alencar. The Secretary General of INTOSAI, Margit Kraker, and the director of the UNDP Office of Policy and Programme Support, Haoliang Xu, were also at the meeting in New York. 

The partnership will focus on the implementation of joint activities, including the institutional strengthening of INTOSAI until 2025, period in which Brazil will be at the head of the group. "The collaboration between UNDP and INTOSAI can influence the audit community around the world and therefore support the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. The partnership has already begun and our teams are making progress together", highlighted Dantas. The agreement has an initial term of two years and can be extended for subsequent periods of three years. 

• Climate 

In the area of climate, one of the main agendas for INTOSAI, the agreement establishes as main points the development of methodologies and instruments to evaluate the governance structures used by national governments to meet international climate commitments, objectives, and goals; the coordination of evaluations to identify gaps and capacity development needs; the use of ClimateScanner and Climate Promise to evaluate climate actions of governments, consolidate global data, support decisions for future work, and communicate relevant information. 

The ClimateScanner is a tool under development that aims to enable Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) to evaluate and monitor the actions of governments to address the climate crisis. Led by the TCU, the project is a global initiative that will collect, consolidate, and publicize data on government actions related to climate change. The Climate Promise is UNDP's action to provide technical support in vital areas to help countries take action to reduce emissions, increase resilience to the impacts of climate change, and support sustainable development priorities. 

Last month, the  ClimateScanner development team attended a training on climate change provided by UNDP experts. The meeting was held in Brasilia, and documents and reports submitted by countries to the United Nations (UN) regarding commitments related to climate change were analyzed. 

• Gender equality 

Regarding gender equality, the agreement provides for the implementation of capacity-building actions for SAIs to integrate gender equality into their work. It also establishes the expansion of UNDP's Gender Equality Seal for public institutions, for SAIs that wish to strengthen the impact of policies on gender equality. 

The Gender Equality Seal is a recognition given to public institutions that demonstrate significant progress towards international standards of gender equality. It is present in several countries, but has not yet been adopted in Brazil, where no SAIs have the certification. “We are holding technical meetings with UNDP Brazil to start the process of obtaining the Gender Equality Seal for the Federal Court of Accounts,” said Minister Bruno Dantas.