UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) Policy Briefs

This policy brief draws attention to the value of external audits to Governments’ efforts to leave no one behind. It highlights some impacts of audit reports on equity, equality and inclusion. It then presents observations and examples from a review of audit report recommendations, which can inform and guide Governments in strengthening their work in this area.

The World Social Report 2025 warns that piecemeal approaches are no match for the scale and interconnectedness of today’s challenges. Rising economic insecurity, persistent inequality, eroding trust, and social fragmentation demand coordinated responses grounded in a shared commitment to equality, social justice, and solidarity. The 2025 World Summit for Social Development offers a chance to reaffirm the Copenhagen Declaration and reapply its principles to current realities, restoring a holistic vision of social progress as the foundation of a more inclusive, resilient, and sustainable future.

Effective and transparent public financial management is crucial for building trust in public institutions and mobilizing and effectively spending additional resources for sustainable development. Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) provide critical information and evidence to inform assessments of the performance of national fiscal systems, including in relation to SDG implementation, and to enhance the effectiveness of fiscal systems for sustainable development.

In a context marked by declining trust in public institutions and reduced fiscal space in many countries, supreme audit institutions (SAIs) play a key role in strengthening transparency and accountability in public institutions. The mandates of SAIs are generally aimed at promoting the transparency, efficiency, effectiveness and accountability of the public sector and improving the performance of government institutions. Initially focused on government compliance and financial auditing, SAIs’ mandates have been expanded to assess the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of public spending and government performance. SAIs can use their mandate to assess government efforts to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), complementing other accountability institutions and actors (such as parliaments, civil society and the media) and governments’ internal monitoring and evaluation systems. Before the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the engagement of SAIs with internationally agreed development goals was limited. Since 2016, this has changed significantly. Individual SAIs at the national level and groups of SAIs working under the umbrella of the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) have engaged in supporting the implementation of the SDGs in various ways, including through conducting audits of progress on SDG targets or their national equivalents, as well as audits of national programmes supporting SDG implementation. This work has resulted in tangible impacts on national policies, programmes and institutional arrangements in support of the SDGs. This brief highlights how the work of SAIs is informing SDG implementation, follow up and review. It provides a brief overview of SAIs’ engagement with the SDGs. This is followed by a snapshot of the current work of SAIs on SDGs and of their impacts. Finally, it reflects on the role of SAIs in national SDG follow-up and review systems.

Converging crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, climate change and various conflicts, have become a defining challenge of our time. Crises that might have previously been contained within a specific geographic space are now propagated rapidly through globally interconnected systems and networks in areas such as economics, finance, the environment and health. This Policy Brief highlights the following: (a) converging crises have reversed and exposed the fragility of global SDG progress and imposed high costs on developing countries, (b) reducing inequality and poverty is critical to building resilience against the impact of shocks and crises, and (c) investment in the SDGs, particularly those that underpin social development, can help build resilience of developing countries to multiple crises, as seen in the case of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The rapid adoption of renewable energy technologies and the transition away from fossil fuels are vital for combating climate change. Achieving net-zero carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 2050 will require much faster deployment of clean energy technologies, including wind turbines, solar panels, electric vehicles (EVs) and battery storage systems. This shift is fueling a sharp rise in demand for critical energy transition minerals such as copper, cobalt, lithium, nickel, and rare earth elements, particularly as developing countries work to achieve universal energy access and diversify their economies. For instance, an onshore wind power plant requires nine times more mineral inputs than a gas-fired plant of the same capacity, while an EV needs six times more minerals than a conventional car. Additionally, the average mineral requirement for new power generation capacity increased by 50 per cent during the 2010s, driven by the growing share of renewables in total capacity additions. Against this backdrop, countries rich in critical mineral resources have an opportunity to unlock significant development benefits. These minerals can attract foreign and domestic investment, create jobs, and boost fiscal revenues, exports, and overall economic growth. However, quantifying the economic scale of the mining industry remains challenging, especially due to the volatility of mineral prices, which directly impact valuations.

Shocks and crises have become more frequent, intense and widespread in an interconnected world, affecting more people across the globe. Crises that might have previously remained relatively contained within a well-defined geographic region, are now propagated rapidly through globally interconnected systems and networks in areas such as economics, finance, the environment and health. The 2008 Global Financial Crisis is an example of how financial shocks spread through the interconnected balance sheets of financial institutions, causing havoc around the world. The COVID-19 pandemic also shows how national health systems were unable to absorb the effects of the virus, which spread quickly through a dense global transportation network before disrupting highly concentrated economic and financial networks and killing more than 7 million people. Looking toward the Second World Summit for Social Development in 2025, this policy brief focuses on explaining how shocks turn into crises and how national policies, supported by the international community, can help counter shocks, build resilience, and advance social development objectives, namely eradicating poverty, promoting full and productive employment, and fostering social inclusion in times of converging crises.

Understanding how population trends are likely to unfold in the short, medium and long terms is critical for achieving a more inclusive, prosperous and sustainable future as recognized in the Declaration on Future Generations. This policy brief provides an overview of some of the main findings of the recently released report, World Population Prospects 2024: Summary of Results (United Nations, 2024a) with the aim of helping countries prepare for population sizes, age structures and spatial distributions that may differ appreciably from those of their recent past.

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the working methods of public institutions. The urgency to respond in real time loosened institutional constraints and forced public agencies to be more agile and to experiment with alternative ways to operate, accelerating innovation. Beyond the implementation of buffer measures to maintain essential public services, the crisis provided opportunities for transformations in public administration that would have been challenging to pursue in “normal” times. Although this urgency presented risks of weakening the checks and balances essential for accountability, it also led to the discovery of more efficient and effective ways to deliver public services, and many of these may become the “new normal”. Nevertheless, it is not clear that the agile decision-making, experimentation and innovation observed during the pandemic will persist. This raises the question of how to foster innovation in public institutions in the absence of crises. To retain public trust, governments must demonstrate they can effectively handle systemic shocks; they must demonstrate capacity to foresee problems and address them proactively before they become crises. Governments can tap into the innovations developed during the pandemic to better serve their constituents and accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.