We will start with a short warm up session where we have the chance to test the technical venue and go through housekeeping instructions. The Opening Ceremony starts at 10.15 AM with opening speeches from the INTOSAI WGEA Chair, Auditor General Dr. Sami Yläoutinen, Auditor General of the SAI Maldives, Hussain Niyazy and the President of UNGA, Honourable Abdulla Shahidh. The ceremony contains also WGEA 30th Anniversary Tribute in a form of a Sand Art Video, Environment and WGEA Awards. Then we have a keynote speech of the Guest of Honour, the representative of the Government of Maldives (TBC) After the opening ceremony, we will dive into the main theme of the 21th INTOSAI WGEA Assembly – climate resilience and climate change adaptation.
The session on resilience and climate change risks focuses on the concept of resilience in the context of climate change. We will learn about the Sendai Framework for disaster reduction and get on overview of the global situation in relation to resilience policies. We will hear first-hand experience on the main resilience-related issues in the Maldives as well as hear from low-lying island states in the Pacific region. The panel will discuss how SAIs integrate resilience perspective into their audits and what is the global common responsibility in the event of sea level rise.
After lunch we continue with the session concentrating on climate change adaptation where we will learn about the latest science base of on climate change adaptation, including cost estimations of non-adaptation and maladaptation. The presentations address the key adaptation actions and challenges in the Maldives, including their climate finance. The panel discussion will address among other things to the role of the SAIs in global and local adaptation policies to leverage the action.
Then we will be presented an audit case examples and commentaries with focus on resilience and climate change adaptation. At the end of the day we get to see presentations regarding collaborative audit initiatives from IDI and SAI Brazil.
INTOSAI Working Group on Environmental Auditing (WGEA) aims to increase the expertise in environmental auditing and to enhance environmental governance with high-quality contribution and visibility by both members of the Working Group and non–member SAIs. Currently INTOSAI WGEA consists of 83 member countries.