DESA and the Permanent Mission of Austria jointly organized on 28 May 2013 in New York a high-level panel on Safeguarding Financing for Sustainable Development.
The objective of the panel was to raise awareness of the challenges and potential safeguards to ensure economic, efficient and effective use of, and preventing corruption in, financing for sustainable development, particularly in view of anticipated new and innovative sources of funding.
H.E. Mr. Martin Sajdik, the Permanent Representative of Austria, chaired the event that was attended by over 110 participants, representing nearly 60 permanent missions.
In his keynote address, Mr Moser, Secretary-General of the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) spoke about the role of INTOSAI and Supreme Audit Institutions (SAI’s). The lack of transparency and accountability of public finances and their use causes tremendous damage to states, endangers peace and security and undermines the efficiency of development aid. The scope of SAI’s work is to increase transparency for the benefit of citizens through contributing to safeguarding of finances.
Mr. Wu Hongbo, USG of DESA, highlighted the necessity of building trust among new and emerging public and private donors in order to mobilize the high levels of funding necessary to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s). He also mentioned that the inter-governmental process for considering a sustainable development financing strategy can benefit from the expertise and experience of finance and audit specialists to ensure an appropriate accountability framework.
Safeguarding funds requires good governance and independent oversight
The first discussant, H.E. Mr. Vladimir Lupan, illustrated the progress of the Moldovan government in increasing transparency and accountability which corresponds with reduced waste and decreased loss of funds. The second discussant, Mr. Amitabh Mukhopadhyay, stated that accountability must be foregrounded in the process of good governance, and not simply accompany good governance as an appendage. Looking at the prevailing deficits in fighting corruption as they exist in several countries, he added that SAI’s need to step into a much more proactive role.
The discussion from the floor included the relationship between the MDG’s and SDG’s and how the MDG’s should be addressed before turning to a new set of goals, the need to honour Official Development Aid (ODA) commitments and targets, and the uncertainty that accompanies new sources of funding, putting in question the stability and sufficiency of flows of funding.
The closing remarks stressed the need for sufficient funding to realize sustainable development initiatives and the importance of attracting new sources of funding, especially from the private sector. The successful mobilization of the large amounts of funds necessary to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) will depend on establishing public trust that the funds will end up in good hands. The enabling environment for safeguarding financing is part of good governance and establishing that trust. The important oversight role of audit in good governance and in implementation must be part of the inter-governmental deliberations on financing for sustainable development.
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