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Court of Audit Reviews SDG Preparedness in Belgium

By Sam Van Hoof

In June 2020, Belgian Court of Audit published a report titled ‘ Sustainable Development Goals – 2030 UN Agenda: implementation, monitoring and reporting by the Belgian authorities’. The Court examined how the various governments in Belgium expressly commit to the SDGs and organise their efforts towards these goals. The audit was not aimed at evaluating the results of the sustainable development policy, but rather at conducting an SDG preparedness review . The Court reviewed the preparedness of both the federal and subnational governments, as well as the coordination of efforts by the different authorities towards the SDGs.
The coordination of efforts towards the SDGs in Belgium has been a responsibility of the Inter-ministerial Conference on Sustainable Development (ICSD). However, the Court found that this body had not met since the end of 2017, and recommends it to resume its coordinating role. Moreover, the Court observed a lack of coordination in the monitoring of the SDGs. Due to the autonomous competences at different levels (federal, communities, regions), several governments have developed SDG monitoring indicators in their own way. The report therefore recommends subnational and national authorities to align their indicators, and to report on SDG policies in a way that would make it possible to coordinate the results at the national level. Furthermore, the Court recommends to set quantified objectives , as these are often missing, including in the national strategy drawn by ICSD in 2017.
For its SDG Preparedness Review, the Court of Audit used the seven-step assessment model adopted by the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) . INTOSAI serves as an umbrella organisation for the external government audit community, comprising some 195 Supreme Audit Institutions. In particular, the Court examined whether the authorities in Belgium:

  1. made a strong commitment to achieve the SDGs;
  2. involved the public and relevant stakeholders in the process;
  3. clearly distributed the various responsibilities and the corresponding resources;
  4. ensured sufficient mutual coordination;
  5. had specific strategic plans providing clear objectives;
  6. duly prepared their policies;
  7. developed a system to monitor and report on SDG achievement.

The SDGs have become a strategic priority for INTOSAI. Since 2017, it has encouraged Supreme Audit Institutions to contribute to national efforts to track progress towards the goals, monitor implementation, and identify areas of improvement through their audits. An SDG Preparedness Review, as conducted by the Belgian Court of Audit, is one of the four approaches put forward by INTOSAI for audit institutions to take up this role:

  1. Assessing the preparedness of national governments to implement, monitor, and report on progress of the SDGs;
  2. Undertaking performance audits of key government programmes contributing to the SDGs;
  3. Assessing and supporting the implementation of SDGs 16 and 17;
  4. Acting as models of transparency and accountability in their own operations.

INTOSAI has developed an Atlas on the SDGs, a map showing which Supreme Audit Institutions have published audits on the SDGs. So far in Europe, SDG Preparedness Reviews have been conducted in the Netherlands, Poland, Austria, Slovakia, Spain, Germany, Bosnia Herzegovina, and most recently in Belgium. Moreover, the Dutch Court of Audit has published a Practical Guide to Government SDG Preparedness Review, which provides advice for audit institutions on how to conduct this type of audit.