Wednesday 30 October 2019

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

Opening: Andrew Staines, Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative (Economic Affairs) of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the United Nations, Geneva; Chair, thirty-fifth session of the Intergovernmental Working Group of Experts on Accounting and Reporting (ISAR)

Opening remarks:
Mukhisa Kituyi, Secretary-General, UNCTAD
James Zhan, Director, Division on Investment and Enterprise, UNCTAD

Election of Chair and Vice-Chair-cum Rapporteur
Arman Bekturova, Director, Ministry of Finance, Kazakhstan (Chair nominee)
Vânia Maria da Costa Borgerth (Vice-Chair nominee)

Keynote address:
Recorded video by H.E Mona Juul, President, Economic and Social Council

High-level panel: Impact of sustainability and the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development on financial and non-financial enterprise reporting

The panel will review recent trends and challenges in the area of financial and non-financial reporting in the context of the 2030 Agenda and the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals. In particular, panellists will discuss the following issues:

  • What is the impact of the 2030 Agenda on recent trends in accounting and reporting at the company level?
  • With regard to reflecting the private sector’s contribution to Sustainable Goal Reporting at the national level, including in voluntary national reports, what good practices and challenges can be considered?
  • What are the key policy implications for accounting and reporting stemming from initiatives such as the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures and the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative?
  • What role should regulators and standard setters play in enhancing the role of enterprise reporting in sustainable and inclusive growth?
  • What is the role of the private sector in addressing issues of quality and comparability of sustainability reporting and Sustainable Development Goal reporting, and the usefulness of such reporting for key stakeholders (investors, consumers and governments)?

Dmitry Kyko, Deputy Minister of Finance, Belarus
Maria Ria Nonyana-Mokabane, Chief Director, Consumer and Corporate Regulation Division, Legislative Drafting, Department of Trade and Industry, South Africa
Andrew Death, Deputy Director, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, United Kingdom
Thomas Verheye, Principal Adviser, Green Finance and Investment, European Commission
Reto Zemp, Committee Issuer, Accounting, Auditing and Disclosure, International Organization of Securities Commissions
Jonathan Labrey, Chief Strategy Officer, International Integrated Reporting Council
Mario Abela, Director, Redefining Value, World Business Council for Sustainable Development
Chungwoo Suh, Member, International Accounting Standards Board
Madelyn Antoncic, Chief Executive Officer, Sustainability Accounting Standards Board, United States of America

Discussion
Lunch break

Agenda Item 3. Practical implementation, including measurement, of core indicators for entity reporting on the contribution towards the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals: Review of case studies

Under this agenda item, two sessions will review selected enterprise cases studies on the application of the UNCTAD guidance on core indicators for entity reporting on the contribution towards the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals. The sessions will elaborate on the key findings of the case studies, lessons learned and a way forward towards promoting consistent and comparable entity reporting on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. The session will also share good practices in the harmonization of Sustainable Development Goal reporting by companies to facilitate the comparability of sustainability and Sustainable Development Goal reporting by companies and its usefulness for key stakeholders, including the investment community, consumers, Governments and other users of data on the private sector’s contribution to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. In particular, the two sessions will explore the following issues:

  • What are the key lessons learned in collecting accounting data for the core Sustainable Development Goal indicators at the company level? How useful is the guidance on core indicators for entity reporting on the contribution towards the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals in helping companies provide baseline reporting on their contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals?
  • How useful is the guidance on core indictors for facilitating the comparability and consistency of Sustainable Development Goal reporting by entities for key stakeholders (investors, consumers and other users of entity reporting)?
  • How can the core indicators facilitate synergies with other sustainability reporting frameworks, standards and initiatives?
  • How useful are the core indicators in enabling countries to collect data on the private sector’s contribution to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and to report on Goal 12.6 and indicator 12.6.1; and in informing voluntary national report processes at the national level?
  • What measures could policymakers and other stakeholders take to promote the alignment of national accounts and statistics methodologies with Sustainable Development Goal reporting by entities?
  • What are the most pressing capacity-building needs that would enable countries to collect useful and comparable data on the contribution of companies towards the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals at the national level, and how they could be better addressed?
  • How can global forums such as ISAR further contribute to enhancing the role of entity reporting in monitoring the progress in implementing the Sustainable Development Goals?

Introduction of agenda item 3: UNCTAD Secretariat

Case study presenters
Donna Street, Director of Research and Educational Activities, International Association for Accounting Education and Research, Chair and Professor, Department of Accounting, School of Business, University of Dayton, United States
Nermeen F. Shehata, Associate Professor of Accounting, School of Business, The American University in Cairo, Egypt
Felipe Janica, Partner, Ernst and Young Colombia and Financial Accounting Advisory Services Leader, Ernst and Young LATAM
Colin Banning, Director General and Founder, TGB Consulting

Panellists
Lucas Gómez García, Director of Follow-up and Evaluation of Public Policy, National Planning Department, Colombia
Wilmar Franco Franco, President, Technical Public Accounting Council, Colombia
Julie Ansidei, Head, Strategy and Sustainable Finance Unit, Autorité des marchés financiers, France
Vania Maria da Costa Borgerth, Brazilian Development Bank, Brazil
Mardi McBrien, Managing Director, Climate Disclosure Standards Board
Juan Pablo Morataya, Executive Director, Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility in Guatemala (CentraRSE), Guatemala
Richard V. Rothenberg, Executive Director, Global AI Corporation, United States
Jimmy Greer, Head of Sustainability, Association of Chartered Certified Accountants

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

Thursday 31 October 2019

Agenda item 3 (continued). Practical implementation, including measurement, of core indicators for entity reporting on the contribution towards the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals: Review of case studies

Case study presenters
Zhang Ye, Vice-President, China Metallurgical Group Corporation, China
Svetlana Ivchenko, Head, Social Policy Department, Nornickel, Russian Federation, Vladimir Skobarev, Partner, Head of Corporate Governance and Sustainability, FBK Grant Thornton, Russian Federation
Tetiana Iefymenko/Liudmyla Lovinska, Academy of Financial Management, Ukraine
Tom Giddings, Sustainability Data and Reporting Manager, DS Smith, United Kingdom

Discussants: United Kingdom case study
Ken Williamson, Partner, Ernst and Young, United Kingdom
Alan McGill, Partner, Global Sustainability Assurance Leader, Price Waterhouse Cooper, United Kingdom
Sora Utzinger, Responsible Investment Analyst, Aviva
Seema Jamil-O’Neill, Head, Accounting and Reporting Policy Team, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy of the United Kingdom

Panellists
Søren Schiønning Andersen, Director, Business Statistics, Statistics Denmark
Ariela Caglio, Director, École supérieure des sciences économiques et commerciales –Bocconi Double Degree Programme and Associate Professor, Department of Accounting, Bocconi University, Italy
Gerbrand Haverkamp, Executive Director, World Benchmarking Alliance
Mathieu Verougstraete, Economic Affairs Officer, Financing for Sustainable Development Office, Department of Economic and Social Affairs
Ilcheong Yi, Senior Research Coordinator, United Nations Research Institute for Social Development

Discussion
Lunch break

Agenda item 4. Review of current developments in international standards of accounting and reporting in the public and private sectors

This panel will discuss current developments in International Financial Reporting Standards. In particular, the following issues will be addressed:

  • What are some of the key lessons learned in implementing recently issued International Financial Reporting Standards?
  • Are there any particular challenges that countries and enterprises are encountering in implementing the new standards?
  • What are some of the global mechanisms available to ensure comparable and consistent implementation of that International Financial Reporting Standards that have gone into effect in recent years?
  • What are some of the main benefits derived from implementing recently issued International Financial Reporting Standards?
  • There are many countries around the world that have not yet implemented International Financial Reporting Standards. What is the trend likely to be in the coming years?

Caroline Aggestam Pontoppidan, Professor, Copenhagen Business School
Chiara Del Prete, Chair, Technical Expert Group, European Financial Reporting Advisory Group
Xu, Huaxin, Head of Secretariat, Asian–Oceanian Standard-Setters Group
Lebogang Senne, Technical Director, Pan-African Federation of Accountants
Group of Latin American Accounting Standard-Setters (to be confirmed)
Holger Daske, Professor, University of Mannheim Business School and Chair, Accounting and Capital Markets, Mannheim; Sara Alsarghali, University of Mannheim Business School, Mannheim

Discussion

Friday 1 November 2019

Informal consultations (by invitation only)

Consideration of outcomes of agenda item 3

Agenda item 4 (continued). Review of current developments in international standards of accounting and reporting in the public and private sectors

The number of countries implementing International Public Sector Accounting Standards has been growing over the years. This trend is projected to continue at a faster rate in the coming years. Panellists will discuss the following issues:

  • What are some good practices in implementing International Public Sector Accounting Standards worldwide?
  • What can be done to facilitate the timely preparation of public sector financial reports?
  • How can member States build the necessary human capacity to successfully implement International Public Sector Accounting Standards?
  • What are some key challenges and benefits of whole of government accounts?

Keynote address: Vicky Rock, Director for Public Spending at Her Majesty’s Treasury, United Kingdom

Panellists:
Luzvi Chatto, Member, International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board
Kev Pertaub, Head, Whole of Government Accounts, Her Majesty’s Treasury, United Kingdom
Vladimir Zharinov, Chief Executive Officer and Vice-President, Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Russian Federation
Alex Metcalfe, Head, Public Sector, Association of Chartered Certified Accountants

Discussion
Lunch break

Agenda item 5 – Other business

During this segment, member States that have implemented the UNCTAD-ISAR Accounting Development Tool will share their experiences with participants in the session.

Institutional challenges in accounting and experiences of Accounting Development Tool implementation

Tatyana Rybak, Head, Accounting, Reporting and Audit Regulation Directorate, Ministry of Finance, Belarus
Lucas Gómez García, Director of Follow-up and Evaluation of Public Policy, Department of National Planning, Colombia

Consideration of outcomes of agenda items 4 and 5

Agenda item 6. Provisional agenda for the thirty-seventh session of ISAR
Agenda item 7. Adoption of the report