Statement by the Permanent Representative of Brazil to the United Nations, Ambassador Sério França Danese, at the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI)'s 2024 HLPF Side Event "Auditing for effective, accountable and inclusive public institutions for implementation of SDGs" - July, 15th, 2024

Excellencies, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure and an honor for me to open this event jointly organized by the INTOSAI General Secretariat, the INTOSAI Development Initiative, the INTOSAI Working Group on Environmental Auditing, the Supreme Audit Institution of Brazil and the Permanent Mission of Brazil to the UN, in collaboration with UN-DESA.

This event aims at highlighting how Supreme Audit Institutions can contribute to an effective, accountable and inclusive implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the achievement of its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The convening of this event in this year's High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) is particularly timely for many reasons.

First of all, because, in this year's Forum, one of the SDGs under in-depth review is SDG 16.

SDG 16 promotes peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, providing access to justice for all and building effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

It is more than evident that the work of Supreme Audit Institutions directly and indirectly contributes to the SDGs, being however particularly key to many targets of SDG 16.

As the SDGs are all interlinked and integrated, achieving SDG 16, especially by promoting and ensuring effective, accountable and inclusive public institutions, is crucial for realizing the purpose of the 2030 Agenda.

This year, the HLPF is also reviewing SDG 1 (on poverty), SDG 2 (on hunger) and SDG 13 (on climate action) - besides SDG 17, on revitalizing the global partnership for the SDGs, which is reviewed every year.

All these SDGs are of key importance for Brazil, as reflected in the  priorities for our G20 presidency - which include the fight against hunger and poverty and the reform of global governance institutions. That importance is also reflected in our firm commitment to combat climate change, which is also exemplified by our decision do host COP30, to take place on November next year, in the city of Belem, the entrance gate to the Brazilian Amazon.

The fact that this side-event is focused on the engagement of Supreme Audit Institutions points towards a key element of the 2030 Agenda. As stressed in its second preambular paragraph, “All countries and all stakeholders, acting in collaborative partnership, will implement this plan”. This means that the achievement of the goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda requires joint work of all, at all levels.

Finally, the convening of this side-event today also has a special meaning for Brazil, since this year we are presenting a Voluntary National Review (VNR) on our domestic progress in implementing the 2030 Agenda. This will be our second VNR, after a first one presented in 2017.

Before I finish, let me take this opportunity to invite all of you to the two other side-events organized by Brazil in the context of this HLPF: on July 16 (tomorrow), at Conference Room 5, UN Headquarters, at 1:15 PM, we will have our event on the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty, which is one of the key initiatives of Brazil during its G20 presidency this year.

And on the same day and time, we will have another event, at Conference Room 7, on "Ethnic-Racial Equality in the 2030 Agenda". So in this year's HLPF, Brazil is giving you two options of side-events at the same day and time. I hope you can attend at least one of them.

I thank you.