Wits alumnus plays key role in World Food Programme clinching 2020 Nobel Peace Prize
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Chair of the programme’s audit committee has made contributions to the development of corporate governance and auditing standards for years.
Professor Suresh Parbhoo Kana (MCom 1986), who has chaired the Audit Committee of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), which recently received the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize, has been providing oversight for the programme since 2015.
The Audit Committee of the WFP serves in an expert advisory capacity to assist the Executive Board and the Executive Director of the WFP in exercising their governance responsibilities regarding financial reporting, internal control arrangements, risk management processes and other audit related matters.
“It is important that we are accountable to the hungry people we serve and the donors that provide funds,” soft-spoken Professor Kana, 65, who is retired and serves on several boards, said. “The WPF needs to constantly measure performance and demonstrate results while meeting the needs of beneficiaries in terms of reliability of supply and quality of food. As the WFP plans, designs, implements and reports on its activities, the Audit Committee is responsible for monitoring and evaluating WFP efforts and the evidence is necessary in order to adjust projects.” 
The WFP, the world's largest humanitarian organisation focused on hunger and food security, was founded in 1961. It was for its efforts to combat hunger and its contribution to bettering the chances for peace in conflict-affected areas, where it acted as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict, that the WFP was awarded the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel committee said the WFP’s work to address hunger had laid the foundations for peace in nations ravaged by war.
Professor Kana said he was thrilled about the achievement. Although he has to regularly travel to the WFP headquarters in Rome as well as to beneficiary countries to evaluate first-hand the work of the UN food agency, he provides his services voluntarily. He said in 2020, double the usual number of people living on the brink of starvation will be assisted with food by the WFP because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
WFP’s Executive Director David Beasley said in a statement after the award was announced on 9 October 2020: “Every one of the 690 million hungry people in the world today has the right to live peacefully and without hunger . . . The Norwegian Nobel Committee has turned the global spotlight on them and on the devastating consequences of conflict.” He added: “Climate shocks and economic pressures have further compounded their plight. And now, a global pandemic with its brutal impact on economies and communities, is pushing millions more to the brink of starvation.”
Professor Kana has spent all his working life in accounting. He attained a BCom degree at the then University of Durban-Westville in 1975 and an MCom degree from Wits in 1986. He has been awarded honorary doctorates by the University of Johannesburg and the Nelson Mandela University for his contributions to the development of corporate governance, and accounting and auditing standards. He is also Professor of Accounting at University of Johannesburg and a Chartered Director since 2015.
Wits will be awarding an honorary doctorate in commerce to Professor Kana. The conferral has been delayed due to the COVID pandemic.
He built his career at PwC, after joining as an article clerk in 1976 and was admitted to the partnership in 1986. He served on the PwC Global Board between 2006 and 2009. He was elected as CEO for PwC Southern Africa in 2009 and in 2012 became Territory Senior Partner and CEO for PwC Africa.
Professor Kana presently serves as Deputy Chairman of the Integrated Reporting Committee of South Africa, a body which assists in developing a framework for Integrated Reporting; is Chairman of Murray & Roberts Holdings Limited; and is lead independent non-executive director of the JSE Limited.
He is Trustee of the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation headquartered in London; a member of the Advisory Panel of Illovo Sugar Limited; chairman of the King Committee on Corporate Governance in South Africa; and trustee of the Constitutional Court Trust. In 2016, he was conferred a Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to the accounting field by the South African Professional Services Awards Organisation. Professor Kana is also co-author, with Professor Geoff Everingham, of Corporate Reporting, a leading textbook in financial reporting.
Married to Kalpana, they have four children, all chartered accountants. Professor Kana is committed to developing leadership among young people and uses mountaineering as the basis.
An avid high-altitude trekker and mountaineer, having participated in treks to Mt Kilimanjaro Uhuru Peak, Annapurna Base Camp, Mt Everest Base Camp and High Camp of the Naya Kanga Peak Himalayas, he has led and offered guidance to 40 young leaders during a climb to Mt Everest Base Camp.