The VIII OLACEFS-EUROSAI Joint Conference was held in Quito (Ecuador) from the 24^th to the 26^th of June 2015, gathering more than 100 representatives from delegations of Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean and its external partners.

During the opening ceremony, Mr. Jorge Glas Espinel, Vice-President of the Republic of Ecuador, highlighted the common goals and challenges faced by SAIs gathered in Quito and emphasized the importance of the fight against corruption and of environmental audits, which necessarily imply a professionalization of SAI's staff.

This ceremony also featured the intervention of Mr. Aroldo Cedráz de Oliveira, President of OLACEFS, Mr. Arno Visser, Acting President of EUROSAI, and Mr. Carlos Pólit Faggioni, Comptroller General of the Republic of Ecuador and host of the event.

The two central themes of the Joint Conference, Coordinated Audits and Good Governance, were developed through various parallel working sessions which gave a more dynamic and innovative format to the event. Among the issues discussed during the working sessions related to Coordinated Audits were: overcoming obstacles, their use as tool for monitoring sustainable development goals and professional and institutional development. Following this same discussion format, the Good Governance topics were related to the use of Open Data, transparency and ethics, promotion of SAIs Best Practices for Public Administration and the Open Government Partnership.

The working sessions were preceded each day by the interventions of specialists in areas such as Education and e-learning (João Mattar – University Anhembi Morumbi), capacity building (Einar Gorrissen) or Open Government and control (Ryan Androsoff - OECD), which enabled participants to be better prepared for the subsequent discussion of each topic. At the end of the day, after the completion of the working sessions, the results and lessons to be learned were presented by each group in a Plenary Session.

The second day of the Joint Conference included as well the interventions of INTOSAI’s General Secretariat with the latest news on the activities of the organization and, also, of the SAI of the United States (GAO), with information regarding the INTOSAI Journal.

During the Closing Session, the participants of the VIII OLACEFS-EUROSAI Joint Conference were addressed by Ms. Priscila Jara, representative of the Executive Secretariat of OLACEFS (SAI of the Republic of Chile), Mr. Felipe García Ortiz, representative of the EUROSAI Secretariat (SAI of Spain), and Mr. Carlos Pólit Faggioni, Comptroller General of the State of the Republic of Ecuador.

In addition, a special event to celebrate EUROSAI’s 25^th anniversary was also held in the side lines of the Joint Conference. The event mainly consisted of a commemorative video, a photographic exhibition and the rewarding speeches of Mr. Felipe García Ortiz, Mr. Rekai Akyel (President of the SAI of Turkey), Ms. Helena Abreu Lopes (SAI of Portugal), Monika González-Koss (INTOSAI Secretariat) and Mr. Arno Visser, recalling the main outcomes and milestones during EUROSAI’s 25 years of existence.