Wednesday 24 October 2018

Agenda item 1. Election of officers
Agenda item 2. Adoption of the agenda and organization of work

Opening: David Gichana, Deputy Auditor-General, Office of the Auditor General, Kenya, Chair, thirty-fourth session of ISAR

Opening remarks: Isabelle Durant, Deputy Secretary-General, UNCTAD

Election of Chair and Vice-Chair-cum Rapporteur
Andrew Staines, UK Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative (Economic Affairs) to the United Nations, Geneva (Chair Nominee)
Arman Bekturova, Director, Ministry of Finance, Kazakhstan (Vice-Chair nominee)

Keynote address: Aligning corporate reporting: a system for long-term value creation
Richard Howitt, Chief Executive Officer, International Integrated Reporting Council

High-Level panel: Key trends in accounting and reporting and their impact on sustainable and inclusive development

This high-level panel will highlight recent developments and trends in the area of financial and non-financial enterprise reporting in the private and public sector and their implications for policy-makers, investors, companies and other stakeholders in the enterprise reporting chain. In particular, the following issues will be addressed:

  • What are the current key trends and emerging new issues in the area of accounting and reporting in the private and public sector?
  • How can policy-makers and other stakeholders further contribute towards harnessing the positive contribution of reporting to sustainable development and financial inclusion?
  • What are some of the key recent development towards integrating reporting on the sustainability/ESG issues in companies reporting cycle?
  • How can forums such ISAR further contribute towards promoting high-quality financial and non-financial reporting by enterprises?

Michel Prada, Former Chair, International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation
Jean-Paul Servais, Vice Chairman, International Organization of Securities Commissions
Vania Maria da Costa Borgerth, BNDES, Brazil
David Szafran, Attorney, Eubelius, Belgium
Steve Waygood, Chief Responsible Investment Officer, Aviva, and member of the EU High-Level Expert Group on Sustainable Finance

Discussion

Lunch break

Agenda Item 3. Enhancing comparability of sustainability reporting: Selection of core indicators for entity reporting on the contribution towards the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals

This high-level panel will focus on key initiatives, developments and challenges with respect to sustainability reporting, integration of the ESG reporting into companies reporting cycle, and enhancing the role of enterprise reporting in providing data for assessing the private sector contribution to the SDG implementation. In particular, the following issues will be addressed:

  • Whether and how the SDG agenda and its monitoring needs have affected requirements in the area of sustainability reporting at a company level?
  • What are the main drivers for companies to provide data on their performance and impacts on the SDG implementation? What are key obstacles?
  • What could motivate companies to integrate the ESG information into the reporting cycle and publish high quality sustainability information as required by the SDG 12.6. and 12.6.1? In this regard is indicator 12.6.1 is a good measurement for the SDG 12.6?
  • What are good practices and main challenges on data collection at a national level for assessment of the private sector contribution to the SDG implementation? Should the sustainability/SDG data be provided at a legal entity level considering that the impacts are local? Or it should only be provided at a consolidated level considering that investors are mainly concerned with a group performance at a consolidated level?
  • How to facilitate coordination and cooperation among key stakeholders in the area of sustainability/SDG reporting, including such as financial reporting regulators, environmental, labour and statistical bodies, investors, professional bodies, and society at large? How to align all these users needs in this area and could a set of core baseline indicators be a solution as an entry point?
  • What are the most pressing capacity-building needs in the area of sustainability reporting at a company level and at a country level to facilitate availability of reliable and comparable data on the private sector contribution to the SDG implementation?

Introduction of agenda item 3 : Tatiana Krylova, Head, Enterprise Branch, UNCTAD
Lucas Sebastian Gomez, Director for Monitoring and Evaluation of Public Policies and Technical Secretary of the SDG Commission, Colombia
Carmem Bueno, Director, Department of Political and Social Relations, Office of the President of Brazil
Shameela Ebrahim, Senior Strategist, Sustainability, JSE, and Chair of the Sustainability Working Group at the World Federation of Exchanges
Michael Zimonyi, Policy & External Affairs Manager, Climate Disclosures Standards Board
Catherine Saire, Sustainability Director, Deloitte
Sonia Aparecida Consiglio Favaretto, Director, B3, Brazil
Débora Ponce, Counsellor, Permanent Mission of Guatemala
Jimmy Greer, Head of Sustainability, ACCA
Alex Cobham, Chief Executive, Tax Justice Network

Discussions

ISAR Honours ceremony

ISAR Honours aims to support efforts on enhancing the quality of companies’ reporting on their contribution to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and its usefulness for monitoring the implementation of the SDGs. ISAR Honours will be presented to policy, institutional or capacity-building initiatives that facilitate improvements in companies’ reporting on sustainability and SDG issues.

Reception

Thursday 25 October 2018

Agenda Item 3. (continued) Enhancing comparability of sustainability reporting: Selection of core indicators for entity reporting on the contribution towards the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals

The panel will conduct further deliberations on the draft guidance on core indicators on the SDG reporting by entities (GCI). In particular, the following issues will be addressed:

  • Would the proposed indicators enable enterprises to provide comparable data on their performance towards the achievement of the SDGs, in alignment with the SDG monitoring framework?
  • What could be main challenges on collecting underlying accounting data required for the proposed SDG indicators? Could cost and management accounting information be used for these purposes? What kind of assurance is required to facilitate reliability of such data?
  • Are the suggested SDG indicators for companies useful for enabling countries to collect data on the private sector contribution to implementation of the SDGs and to report on the SDG target 12.6 and indicator 12.6.1; as well as on other SDG indicators in the area of environmental protection, waste generation; rational use of natural resources such as energy, water and land; social issues such as gender equality, good governance and anti-corruption practices?
  • Would measures to promote alignment of a limited number of core SDG indicators for companies with the national accounts and statistic methodologies be helpful to facilitate usefulness and comparability of such reporting for different stakeholders, including the national SDG monitoring authorities?
  • What kind of solutions can new data companies provide to support harmonisation and comparability of the SDG reporting by companies and to improve monitoring and aggregation of the SDG data at a company level, including the proposed core indicators?
  • Would the GCI be a useful tool to develop case studies to advance high quality reporting by entities on their contribution to the SDG agenda?

Ariela Caglio, UNCTAD Resource Person
Anne Gadegaard, Associate Director, Corporate Sustainability, Novo Nordisk
Henrik Bang, Head of Division, Population and Education, Statistics Denmark
Richard V. Rothenberg, Executive Director, Global AI Corporation
Jose Luis Blasco, Global Head of Sustainability, KPMG
Neil Stevenson, Managing Director – Global Implementation, International Integrated Reporting Council
Bernhard Frey, Senior Manager – SDG Impact and Reporting, UN Global Compact
Emily Sims, Senior Specialist, Multinational Enterprises Programme, International Labour Office
Danielle Chesebrough, Senior Analyst, Investor Relations with UNGC, Policy & Research
Nadina Stodiek, Fund Manager PPP Mandates, Impact Manager,BlueOrchard
Gulenn També, Partner, EY
Victoria Hurth, Convenor TC309, ISO
Tetiana Iefymenko/ Liudmyla Lovinska, Academy of Financial management, Ukraine
Lowri Angharad Rees, Programme Management Officer, Sustainable Development Goals and Environmental Statistics Unit, UN Environment – Science Division
Denise Kronemberger, Advisor, Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics
Jessica Ying Chan, Environmental Economic Accounts Section, Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs
James Donovan, Chief Executive Officer, ADEC Innovations
Maria Mora, Chair of the Best Practices Board, XBRL

Discussion

Lunch break

Agenda item 4. Issues of practical implementation of international standards of accounting and reporting in the public and private sectors

The panel will review the current state of implementation of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). In particular, the following issues will be addressed:

  • What is the current state of implementation of IFRs around the world?
  • Are IFRS being implemented in a comparable and consistent manner?
  • Are monitoring, compliance and enforcement authorities conducting their work in a consistent and comparable manner around the world?
  • What are some of the key benefits that have been derived as a result of the global implementation of IFRS?
  • Some large jurisdictions around the world have not yet implemented IFRS as issued by the IASB. What are the prospects for these jurisdictions to implement IFRS in the coming years?
  • What are some of the main challenges that countries and enterprises are encountering in implementing IFRS?
  • What needs to be done at the global level to promote further implementation of IFRS in additional jurisdictions, particularly by developing countries and countries with economies in transition?

Introduction of agenda item 4: Yoseph Asmelash, UNCTAD
Amaro Luiz de Oliveira Gomes, Board Member, International Accounting Standards Board
Andrew Watchman, Chief Executive Officer and Technical Expert Group Chairman, European Financial Reporting Advisory Group
Alejandro Vera Espinosa, Director, Group of Latin American Accounting Standard-Setters
Lebogang Senne, Technical Director, Pan-African Federation of Accountants
Alan McGill, Global Sustainability Assurance Partner, PwC
Xu, Huaxin, Head of Secretariat, Asian-Oceanian Standard-Setters Group

Discussion

Friday 26 October 2018

Informal consultations (by invitations only)
Consideration of outcomes of agenda item 3
Agenda item 4. (continued…) Issues of practical implementation of international standards of accounting and reporting in the public and private sectors

Over the last 20 years, many countries have opted to prepare their public sector financial statements in accordance with global standards issued by the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board. The panel discussion will focus on the following issues:

  • What is the current state of implementation of IPSAS around the world?
  • What are the main challenges that have been arising in the process of implementing IPSAS?
  • Are there clearly defined and globally recognized assurance standards intended for financial reports prepared by public sector entities?
  • What needs to be done to facilitate sharing of experiences among member States with respect to implementation of IPSAS?
  • Furthermore, speakers in this panel will present case studies on implementation of International Public Sector Accounting Standards

Luzvi Chatto, Board member, International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board
David Gichana, Deputy Auditor-General, Office of the Auditor General, Kenya
Iain Mansfield, Head of Public Sector, ACCA
Sandro Fuchs, Head, Center for Public Financial Management, Zurich University of Applied Sciences
Lourdes Castillo, Assistant Commissionner, Philippines Commission on Audit
Barbara Pabersath, INTOSAI General Secretariat and the Austrian Court of Audit

Discussions

Lunch break

Agenda item 5 – Other business

During this segment, member States that implemented the UNCTAD-ISAR Accounting Development Tool (ADT) will share their experiences.

Tatyana Rybak, Head, Accounting, Reporting and Audit Directorate, Ministry of Finance of Belarus

Discussions
Consideration of outcomes of agenda items 4 and 5

Agenda item 6. Provisional agenda for the thirty-sixth session of ISAR

Agenda item 7. Adoption of the report