New Guidance from IFAC Shares Good Practice, PAO Success Stories
Enhanced collaboration across the accountancy profession’s global, regional, and national levels is a key success factor in achieving strong, sustainable professional accountancy organizations (PAOs), which are crucial to healthy economies. To encourage and support mutually beneficial partnerships that create stronger PAOs and strengthen the accountancy profession, the International Federation of Accountants® (IFAC®) today released Counting on Each Other: Establishing & Maintaining Effective PAO Partnerships.
“A healthy economy needs a well-functioning accountancy profession comprised of skilled professionals who contribute to high-quality, decision-useful, and publicly available financial and non-financial information,” commented Alta Prinsloo, Executive Director, Strategy, and Chief Operating Officer. “A strong PAO is essential to the development of skilled professionals. Harnessing the collective knowledge and experience of organizations across the global accountancy profession can help developing PAOs realize their potential.”
The guidance offers practical insights on how to approach partnerships between PAOs, drawing on real experiences and successes. It explores laying the foundations for fruitful collaboration and ideas for managing partnerships effectively.
“The right partnership can support a developing PAO’s journey to reach its full potential and take its place in the global accountancy profession,” continued Ms. Prinsloo. “Effective collaboration can bring clear and sustainable benefits for capacity building, not only to the parties directly involved but also to the broader national, regional, and global accountancy communities. As a profession and community, there is much we can learn from each other.”
The guidance was developed as part of the PAO Capacity Building Series, which includes guidance on PAO governance, PAO advocacy and public policy, and engaging professional accountants in business. The guidance also builds on one of the key findings of the MOSAIC PAO Global Development Report, which cited the effective and efficient nature of knowledge-sharing relationships between PAOs as a means of sharing expertise.
About IFAC
IFAC is the global organization for the accountancy profession dedicated to serving the public interest by strengthening the profession and contributing to the development of strong international economies. IFAC is comprised of more than 175 members and associates in more than 130 countries and jurisdictions, representing almost 3 million accountants in public practice, education, government service, industry, and commerce.