Reporting on sustainable development needs a holistic approach
Discussions on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were held during the UN High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) in New York last month. Finland prepared a voluntary national review for the meeting, to which the National Audit Office of Finland (NAOF) contributed an analysis of the Government’s annual reporting. The dynamics between the SDGs have also been a key focus of the INTOSAI Working Group on Environmental Auditing (WGEA), led by the NAOF.
The SDG-focused monitoring forum of the UN, the High-Level Political Forum, convened in New York in July. The governments of different countries report on the progress towards the SDGs through voluntary national reviews. This year, Finland published its third national report titled “Progress towards shared wellbeing of people and planet”. For the first time, the NAOF provided an analysis of the Government’s annual reports in the national review.
Annual reporting does not capture the full picture of sustainable development
The NAOF annually assesses the performance data in the Government’s annual report. Ministries have reported on sustainable development in the annual reports since 2017. However, the general state of sustainable development has not been included in these reports from 2022 onwards. As a result, Parliament no longer receives a consolidated overview of the progress and monitoring of sustainable development.
Despite this, ministries continue to report on their sustainable development activities in the annexes to the annual report as part of their performance descriptions. Some ministries report through the three dimensions of sustainable development – economic, social, and environmental – while others use the framework of the 17 UN SDGs. However, most ministries merely list the programs and objectives of their administrative branch and assess their achievement, rather than addressing sustainable development in a more comprehensive manner.
Some of the targets mentioned in the budget proposal are very general and difficult to measure. Although reporting has improved, it remains challenging to form a comprehensive picture of sustainable development efforts due to the fragmented and broad nature of the targets.
In addition to the Government’s annual report, the first sustainability reports of central government entities were completed in 2021. The State Treasury guides ministries, institutions, and agencies in reporting on their work promoting sustainable development. This reporting is based on the SDGs, which has steered the process in a more concrete direction. However, it is important to remember the key characteristics of sustainable development: policy coherence, intergenerationality, and a global perspective.
Global working group advances sustainability reporting and policy coherence
The INTOSAI Working Group on Environmental Auditing (WGEA), led by the NAOF, has also worked within the framework of the SDGs. In 2022, the working group published a report titled “Auditing Sustainable Development Goals: Key Principles and Tools on Policy Coherence and Multi-stakeholder Engagement for Supreme Audit Institutions”, focusing on auditing policy coherence.
This work was continued in 2023, focusing on the interconnections between climate change and biodiversity loss, which can be conflicting but also mutually supportive. For example, renewable energy projects may harm biodiversity, while nature-based solutions generally support both climate and biodiversity goals. The WGEA recently published a report to help auditors integrate both perspectives into their audits.
The WGEA has also considered whether public administration should adopt the kind of sustainability reporting that has become increasingly common in the private sector. A challenge with this lies in how well reporting on specific administrative branches can address cross-sectoral issues. There is a risk that reporting based on the private-sector logic reinforces administrative silos. One option for annual, holistic reporting on sustainable development progress could be a report similar to the Government’s annual report.
The work on policy coherence continues as the NAOF hands over the chairmanship of the INTOSAI WGEA to Thailand later this year. New projects will focus on environmentally harmful subsidies and the nexus approach, which addresses interconnections between different systems. One aim is to integrate water issues into climate and biodiversity themes.