Sustainability Standards Advisory Forum (SSAF)
Background
The Sustainability Standards Advisory Forum (SSAF) formalises and streamlines the relationships between the IFRS Foundation and ISSB with the relevant jurisdictional and regional bodies, in order to bring important regional perspectives to the ISSB's technical work and to offer feedback on the most important issues of the day.
The objective of the SSAF is to provide an advisory forum where members can constructively contribute towards the achievement of the ISSB's goal of developing standards that provide a comprehensive global baseline of sustainability-related disclosures that is interoperable with jurisdictional standards on sustainability reporting.
The IFRS Foundation announced the formation of the SSAF in May 2022. Before establishing the SSAF, the ISSB worked with a working group of jurisdictional representatives to enhance compatibility between global baseline and jurisdictional initiatives.
Structure and membership
The SSAF is comprised of 12-16 members and a non-voting chair (being the ISSB chair or vice-chair). The 12-16 members are sourced from the following geographical regions:
| Geographical region | Number of members |
|---|---|
| Africa | 1 |
| Americas (North and South) | 3 |
| Asia/Oceania | 3 |
| Europe (including non-EU) | 3 |
| World at large* | minimum 2, up to 6 |
| TOTAL | 12-16 |
* subject to maintaining overall geographical balance.
A minimum of four members of the SSAF will be representatives of emerging economies.