moving towards regional professionalism: the ARABOSAI’s perspective September 04, 2018

session outline Background; The gradual and ongoing process of moving towards regional professionalism; The assessment of ARABOSAI professionalism: approach, challenges and lessons learned; The strengthening of the ARABOSAI General Secretariat; The region’s needs-based training interventions.

BACKGROUND Professionalization is the ongoing process by which individuals and their organizations gain high levels of independence, expertise, competence, ethical behavior and quality, underpinned by professional standards.

The Abu Dhabi Declaration BACKGROUND Abu Dhabi Declaration in 2016 highlighted the importance of enhancing global and regional professionalism to support the continuing professional development of SAI’s as well as the role played by INTOSAI regional organizations in this regard. The Abu Dhabi Declaration

II. The gradual and ongoing process of moving towards Professionalization A gradual process that can take a number of years; Steps and duration of any region Professionalization process are heavily depending on its business model and its strategic imperatives; ARABOSAI is using the CBC Framework for Regional Professionalism as an assessment tool and a management guide.

Executable recommendations A Gradual Process RISK ASSESSMENT (GAP ANALYSIS) STRATEGIC PLANNING PROFESSIONALISM EVALUATION TAKE CONCRETE STEPS FOLLOW-UP Mitigation measures Measure progress Define actions and activities Executable recommendations

Step 1: Risk assessment Mitigation measures to be taken impact The ARABOSAI General Secretariat has developed a risk assessment on the crosscutting priorities of INTOSAI’s SDP from the perspective of the region. Risks Probability impact Mitigation measures to be taken

TRANSLATE MITIGATIONS MEASURES INTO ACTIVITIES IN LINE WITH THE STRATEGIC PLAN P1- Develop the ARABOSAI’s SAIs capacity to audit sustainable development goals; P2- Consolidate exchange and communication between SAIs and related parties; P3-Provide support to members in strategic management and in implementing performance measurement framework and reporting; P4- Support SAIs for standards implementation; P5- Develop the ARABOSAI’s capacity and promote internal governance.

TRANSLATE MITIGATIONS MEASURES INTO ACTIVITIES IN LINE WITH THE STRATEGIC PLAN P1- Develop the ARABOSAI’s SAIs capacity to audit sustainable development goals; P2- Consolidate exchange and communication between SAIs and related parties; P3-Provide support to members in strategic management and in implementing performance measurement framework and reporting; P4- Support SAIs for standards implementation; P5- Develop the ARABOSAI’s capacity and promote internal governance.

Step 3: Evaluation of the regional professionalism III- THE EVALUATION OF ARABOSAI PROFESSIONALISM: APPROACH, CHALLENGES AND LESSONS LEARNED

EVALUATION PURPOSE ARABOSAI is currently in the middle of the planning phase of the first ever region professionalism assessment. This evaluation should: Determine the range of services that ARABOSAI must provide to its members, as well as the best ways to manage resources to achieve its objectives. Analyze operational and strategic process; identify risks, deficiencies and needs in order to operationalize its strategic plan, to improve the organization's performance and to support its capabilities.

METHODOLOGY Consultants are expected to prepare an inception report containing an evaluation framework, detailed evaluation questions on the framework, and an evaluation work plan that describes the methodology. The evaluation is expected to include document reviews, surveys and interviews with key external and internal stakeholders, such as SAIs, ARABOSAI Bodies...   Consultants should take into consideration appropriate measures for collecting data in cases where sensitive or confidential issues are addressed, and avoid presenting information that may be harmful to some stakeholder groups.

The EVALUATION FRAMEWORK The evaluation framework should be based on “INTOSAI FRAMEWORK FOR REGIONAL PROFESSIONALLISM”; Move away from relying exclusively on one single framework to multiple approaches methodology; Based on the INTOSAI CBC professionalism framework, ARABOSAI has to set out a detailed framework with inspiration from IDI experience and other INTOSAI region self assessments inputs; Set up a small focus group with AFROSAI-E and IDI to set detailed terms of reference and framework against which ARABOSAI’s evaluation would be conducted.

INTENDED USERS The ARABOSAI Governing board, committees, and general secretariat will use the evaluation to learn and strengthen the organization. Those stakeholders that the ARABOSAI is accountable to: SAIs who are the beneficiaries of the ARABOSAI’s programmes. Donors who provide funding for the ARABOSAI and for capacity development programmes. INTOSAI Bodies

Challenges The group of consultants (evaluation team) should be independent credible and also experienced in the area of regional activities. How to set out a customized evaluation framework which would be broad enough to define processes to evaluate, criteria, indicators and to guide execution of quality control and report ? How to collect data ? How to finance the evaluation assignement expenses?

Lessons learned Assessing region professionalism cannot be effectively conducted without the full commitment of the region’s bodies and stakeholders; The Assessment of the region’s professionalism should relate to the core services of the region rather than covering all types of activities; Professionalism does not draw exclusively on technical considerations. Administrative and financial aspects should be considered based on the region business model and its resources; As a rule, performance measures should be chosen so that changes in region performance can be attributed to its programs and actions (causal link).

LOOKING FORWARD TO FUTURE DONOR PARTNERSHIPS. Building Capacity BUILDING CAPACITY GENERAL SECRETARIAT Partnerships (AFROSAI-E / IDI) ARABOSAI Committees / Working Groups  LOOKING FORWARD TO FUTURE DONOR PARTNERSHIPS.

IV. THE STRENGTHENING OF THE ARABOSAI GENERAL SECRETARIAT

Bringing updates to the business model GOVERNING BOARD - 12 MEMBERS General Secretary The Institutional Capacity Buildin0g commitee Administrative staff General Secretariat The Professional & Audit Standards Committee Technical Task force Commitees and working groups Strategic plan Committee Coordinators and Project managers Environmental Auditing Committe SDG’s Professionnalization Sharing information

SETTING UP A TECHNICAL TASK FORCE Terms of references that give direction for the planning, execution and the monitoring of the task force activities; The Task force members are designated on a partial time basis through secondments from the SAI of Tunisia that hosts the ARABOSAI General General Secretariat; Requests for secondments from other Arab SAI’s are underway ; All Secondments are totally free of remuneration charges;

Enhancing cooperation with AFROSAI-E A MoU with AFROSAI-E was signed during 2016; Organizing a study visit to AFROSAI-E executive secretariat; A scientific joint event on professionalization and audit of SDG’s was held on march 2018 on the sideline of the ARABOSAI governing board meeting; Workshops on quality assurance and audit of SDG’s are on progress; Information sharing initiatives with AFROSAI-E executive secretariat are on the process of being operationalized.

LEVERAGING PARTNERSHIP WITH IDI IDI has been for years a key partner of ARABOSAI. Very important and valuable activities that IDI succeeded to implement in the Arab region (ex; the strategic planning program, the quality Assurance Program and the 3 I Program…) Enhancing Joints activities: Signing out agreements to ensure a good quality of delivery of IDI training activities in the region. Setting up a small focus group with the participation of IDI to set detailed terms of reference and framework against which ARABOSAI’s assessment would be conducted. Moving towards a closer collaboration between ARABOSAI General Secretariat and IDI on technical issues (a second agreement is underway).

Improving quality of reporting Provide SAI’s with short and insightful reports on the GS activities (study visits, joint events, INTOSAI meetings, workshops…..); Set out thematic regional reports (state of the region report on responding to the expectations resulting from the agenda 2030); Provide ARABOSAI regional committees and working groups with follow-up short reports that contain technical updates.

The ARABOSAI’s information sharing initiatives. These initiatives fall into three main activities which are: The maintenance of the Arabic version of the IDI-KSC portal; The development of a bilateral information sharing initiative with AFROSAI-E and ; The development of a regional sharing information process on SDG’s. Use the KSC /INTOSAI portal for our purposes as far as possible, and build a new attractive website for core issues regarding the region

V. PROFESSIONALISM AND THE REGION’S NEEDS- BASED TRAINING INTERVENTIONS

The region’s needs-based training interventions The main features of the current process are threefold: The ARABOSAI’s Capacity building committee sends out questionnaires to SAI’s inviting them to express training needs; Based on questionnaires analysis, the committee sets out a three years training plan; Updates are brought to the trainings plan on yearly basis; ARABOSAI is in the early steps of a collaborative audit experience.

Moving towards a comprehensive needs-driven process ARABOSAI is on the process of establishing a new needs-driven capacities building interventions Quality assurance review SAI-PMF Gaps Technical updates from INTOSAI committees TOOLS Identify SAI’s needs Face to face training E-learning training OUR RESPONSE

THANK YOU