UNCTAD-ISAR workshop: Regional partnerships as a blueprint for maximising impact on strengthening national sustainability reporting practice and infrastructure

Regional partnerships as a blueprint for maximising impact on strengthening national sustainability reporting practice and infrastructure

The objective of the workshop is to share the experience of the African and Latin American Partnerships for the promotion of sustainability reporting with a view to identify best practices and lessons learned in building Partnerships and maximizing the benefits of its members.

The 11th Tranche Development Account Project implemented by UNCTAD from 2018 to 2022 aimed at enabling policy frameworks for enterprise sustainability and SDG reporting in Africa and Latin America as well as at strengthening the capacities of Governments to measure and monitor the private sector contribution to the SDGs. In particular, the Project also envisaged regional collaboration and experience sharing of lessons learned and best practices from beneficiary countries through the organization of regional workshops and the establishment of two regional partnerships, in Latin America and Africa. The partnerships have been developed to guarantee long-lasting support to African and Latin American countries beyond the project’s completion, to provide a communication channel among peers for sharing experience and good practices and to enable countries to learn from each other. The partnerships also intend to support members in their efforts to develop national strategies and policies for establishing or strengthening national infrastructure for high-quality sustainability reporting and enabling the measurement of the private sector contribution to the SDGs.

The Partnerships brought together main stakeholders in the field of sustainability reporting in the region, including government entities, regulators, national financial reporting standard setters, professional accounting and auditing organizations, stock exchanges and academia. They provided countries a means to share tools, experience, and best practices, as well as to discuss the latest trends and knowledge on sustainability reporting, facilitating consistency and harmonization throughout the regions.

Since their launch, the partnerships have continued to grow and gathered 50 members and 6 observers from 25 countries in Africa and 28 members and 3 observers from 14 countries in Latin America. In the case of the Latin American Partnership, Mexico is the first Chair represented by the Mexican Council for Financial Reporting Standards (CINIF) with the support of the National Banking and Securities Commission of Mexico (CNBV), and the Mexican Institute of Public Accountants (IMCP). The African Partnership is chaired by the Ministry of Finance of Cameroon, while the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC) of South Africa as well as the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK) were elected as Vice-Chairs. 

To foster the dialogue among countries, the partnerships hold 3 annual meetings. These meetings are organized in the format of capacity building activities and virtual panel discussions. The regional groups, with the support of UNCTAD, implemented electronic platforms to serve as a complementary space for the exchange of useful resources and materials related to sustainability reporting, with a forum that fosters dialogue and best practice sharing among Partnerships members.

The experience of the Latin American and African partnerships is a result of cooperation among multi-level stakeholders that can be scaled up and replicated in other regions to advance sustainability reporting practices. In this regard, the workshop will promote the exchange of partnership experience on how to establish efficient cooperation platforms to maximize the impact of the member states’ collective effort towards strengthening sustainability reporting practices and infrastructure at the national level. 
    
 

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