A Systematic Review of Public Sector Climate-Risk Reporting and Assurance Practices: A Conceptual Framework Towards Responsible Governance in Sub-Saharan Africa

Public sector institutions play an important role in advancing the achievement of global sustainable development goals. Tracking the milestones in achieving the sustainable development targets and informing diverse actors about progress towards achieving these goals through climate-risk reporting is vital in generating traction. Ensuring information integrity and independent and objective assessment through appropriate audit and assurance practices enhances transparency and accountability and builds credibility in reporting. This chapter systematically reviewed the literature on the sub-Saharan African perspective of climate-risk reporting and assurance practices, focusing on materiality and cost–benefit constraints. The review suggests that African public sector institutions face challenges in climate-risk reporting and assurance practices. These include a lack of statutory and policy landscape for mandatory disclosure, weak coordination and harmonization among stakeholders, lack of financial resources, weak human and institutional capacity and lack of education and awareness. Mitigating these challenges calls for measures that develop robust legal frameworks for climate-risk disclosure, establish human and institutional capacity-building programmes, ensure adequate funding, increase education and awareness and develop solid multistakeholder and multisectoral approaches.