The new report, The State of Play: Beyond the G20, focuses on the Global South with data from three jurisdictions from Latin America, six in Africa and Middle East, and four in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as six smaller-sized economies within the European Economic Area and Switzerland.

The results show that both sustainability disclosure and assurance are improving in these new jurisdictions. Disclosure rates grew from 84% in 2019 to 89% in 2021, and assurance rates grew from 37% in 2019 to 48% in 2021.

Some of the key highlights of the report are:

• Sustainability information was more likely to be included with financial disclosures — in annual reports or integrated reports — than stand-alone sustainability reports.
• Most companies reviewed in the report (84%) used a mix of standards and frameworks to disclose sustainability information.  Using the Sustainable Development Goals and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards was most common.  About half of the companies used the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosure (TCFD) Framework and a third used the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) Standards.
• While assurance rates have risen from 37% to 48%, engagements are covering a narrower set of topics. 
• Most assurance engagements were conducted by audit firms and 81% of these assurance engagements applied the IAASB’s International Standard on Assurance Engagement 3000.

A press release and the full report are available on the IFAC website.