Who partner with UNCTAD for the ADT ?

Background of the ADT

The genesis of the ADT has to be found in the Accountancy Development Index (ADI), an United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded initiative (www.usaid.gov) and part of the Benchmarking International Standards of Transparency and Accountability (BISTA) Project (www.fdirisk.com). CARANA Corporation (www.carana.com) facilitated this project in cooperation with Leiden University of the Netherlands (www.leiden.edu).  In 2009, UNCTAD signed a  Memorandum of Understanding with Carana Corporation and Leiden University  to expand the application of the tool they designed, with a view to refine it, further test it, and adapt it to UNCTAD member countries.

The ADT is built on strong international consensus

The Accounting Development Tool was built by UNCTAD over the last three years through extensive consultations with the experts of its international ISAR network, including:

• an ISAR Consultative Group  including the World Bank, Financial Stability Board, IFAC, PEFA, IOSCO and ACCA; and representatives from: Brazil, Croatia, Egypt, India, Jamaica, the Netherlands, the Russian Federation, South Africa, Switzerland and the USA.
• an Accountancy Education Forum (March 2011) co-organised by UNCTAD and the International Accounting Education Standards Board.
• a series of National Round Tables organized by UNCTAD with the support of ACCA and national counterparts, these round tables were held in Brazil, Croatia, South Africa and Viet Nam. Each round table featured the participation of regulators, standard-setters, report preparers and users, academic and training institutions, and other key stakeholders in the area of accounting and reporting.
• the conduction of 9 Pilot tests in 2012 in different regions of the world (Brazil, China, Croatia, Côte d’Ivoire, Mexico, Russia, Vietnam,  South-Africa, and Vietnam). Feedback and lessons learned were used to fine-tune the ADT.
• An international peer reviewing committee was integrated in the assessment process as and additional step in order to ensure coherence and verify quality among all countries.

 The Accounting Development Tool is designed to address the dynamic world of accounting practices; as such it is the subject of continual review and improvement by the international experts of the UNCTAD-ISAR working group.