PREM Notes

176 items available

Permanent URI for this collection

http://hdl.handle.net/10986/9424

This note series is intended to summarize good practices and key policy findings on poverty reduction and economic management (PREM) topics.

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 70

Public Participation in the Budget Process in the Republic of Korea

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-06) Kang, Young Kyu ; Min, Saw Young

In January 2013, the International Budget Partnership (IBP) released the latest Open Budget Survey (OBS) with a new section on public participation. The survey results are not encouraging. For the 100 surveyed countries, the average score for public participation in the budget process is 19 out of 100. However, one country stands out. With a score of 92, Korea emerges as the only country ‘that provides extensive opportunities for public engagement’ (IBP 2012, 33). What makes Korea an exception? This note investigates the different public participation mechanisms in Korea and illustrates how public inputs are reflected in the country’s budget process and fiscal policies.
Building Monitoring and Evaluation Capacity in the Republic of Yemen

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-03) Ivins, Ingrid ; Hwang, Helena

This note disseminates key lessons learned from the World Bank financed project in the Republic of Yemen, monitoring and evaluation of the poverty reduction strategy paper and reform programs, which established and operationalized a poverty reduction strategy monitoring unit. The approaches used, such as a study tour to Uganda, focused international training sessions, and the successful work on improving and minimizing the number of indicators, provide some lessons learned for other countries seeking to build monitoring and evaluation (M&E) capacity. Policy makers learned from Uganda s good practices of connecting accountability with resource allocation and of the importance of a strong and independent statistics office. The Republic of Yemen s experience also illustrates the value of having a powerful M&E champion to support such a significant initiative. Finally, the inclusion of civil society organizations in the planning process and in M&E outputs, especially on the central level and on policy matters, increased popular support and was an important factor in building M&E capacity.
Strengthening PFM in Post-Conflict Countries: Lessons for PFM Practitioners and Country Programming Staff

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-12) Fritz, Verena

Myriad challenges, but also opportunities, surround public financial management (PFM) reforms in postconflict environments. This note provides recommendations that focus on the special characteristics of postconflict environments and their implications for the design and implementation of PFM reform initiatives, and on links to the wider goals of state-building and service delivery. This note principally draws on a cross-country review of the design, implementation, and impact of public financial management (PFM) reforms in eight postconflict states. Focusing on the PFM reform experience over a 7–10-year period from the early 2000s to 2010, the goal of the study was to understand what has worked in countries’ efforts to strengthen PFM systems, and how PFM strengthening impacts wider state-building goals.
Using M&E to Support Performance Based Planning and Budgeting in Indonesia

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-11) Ahern, Mark ; Beard, Victoria A. ; Gueorguieva, Anna I. ; Sri Handini, Retno

Since 2000, there has been growing interest in reforming Indonesia s budgeting systems to promote a more performance-orientated process. Indonesia is in the initial stages of this reform. A major challenge is determining the information needs of the central coordinating ministries. To date, these ministries have taken separate paths, developing their own monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems, which are not linked to the planning and budgeting system, and creating new regulations and institutions to manage them. The result has been underused information and a high reporting burden at all levels. Furthermore, the current system places a greater emphasis on monitoring rather than evaluation. In 2011, representatives from the coordinating ministries participated in a series of high-level round table discussions to identify the steps needed to rationalize and coordinate M&E practices across institutions and to strengthen the links among data collection, evaluation, planning and budgeting. The round table process has confirmed that, while coordination is needed, establishing incentives for the demand and use of M&E information is critical to making the systems effective. This note identifies priority areas for future action building on this finding.
Establishing a National M&E System in South Africa

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-09) Goldman, Ian ; Engela, Ronette ; Akhalwaya, Ismail ; Gasa, Nolwazi ; Leon, Bernadette ; Mohamed, Hassen ; Phillips, Sean

South Africa has a number of actors with legal or constitutional mandates for monitoring and evaluation (M&E). There has been a major shift in emphasis concerning M&E since 2009, partially stimulated by a political need to improve service delivery, but also from the extensive exposure of both technocrats and political leadership to international experiences. As a result, the Ministry of Performance M&E was created in the Presidency in 2009, and the Department of Performance M&E (DPME) in January 2010. The DPME has introduced a number of initiatives since its establishment, including a focus on 12 government priority outcomes; the assessment of the quality of management performance of national and provincial departments; a new system of monitoring front-line services; a national evaluation system; and a municipal performance assessment tool, which is still in development. These tools have contributed to a major increase in the availability of evidence for policy and decision making. Rapid recent progress is due to strong support at the onset from South Africa s President, learning from international experience, and strong teams in DPME and the National Treasury. Despite these positive developments, significant challenges remain in ensuring the coherence of reform initiatives conducted by central government departments, improving administrative data quality, and establishing M&E as a core role of management.
The State Results-Based Management System of Minas Gerais, Brazil

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-04) Busjeet, Gita

In 2003, Minas Gerais's state government (GMG) launched an ambitious plan that gradually introduced a results focus into the public administration and led to the creation of a Results-Based Management (RBM) system relying on performance information generated by Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) tools. A case study of Minas Gerais's RBM system offers insights on: 1) the role of a facilitating environment and individual government champions for reform; 2) M&E tools founded on the desire to strengthen strategic planning; 3) the power of a strong incentive structure; and 4) the value added of investment in institutional and human capacities. The focus on priority policy areas and programs allowed GMG to build an RBM system supported by M&E infrastructure led by the executive branches of government: the governor and vice governor, the Ministry of Planning and Management (SEPLAG) and the State for Results Program (EpR), a small executive team created in 2007 specifically to provide support to the states for results reform agenda.
Conducting Diagnoses of M&E Systems and Capacities

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-11) Shepherd, Geoffrey

A diagnosis of a country's monitoring and evaluation (M&E) activities is indispensable if that country is to develop projects or policy proposals to improve the impact of M&E. This note provides a guide to some of the topics that need to be considered when undertaking such a diagnosis. These topics emphasize both the institutional analysis of factors that drive demand for M&E and the technical factors that drive supply. For each of the nine topics identified, this note discusses some of the major issues analysts would need to consider. This discussion principally centers on reviewing how these issues were covered in recent M&E studies for a number of developed and developing countries.
Chile's Monitoring and Evaluation System, 1994-2010

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-08) Dussauge Laguna, Mauricio I.

The Chilean Management Control and Evaluation System (Sistema de Evaluacion y Control de Gestion) is internationally regarded as a successful example of how to put into place a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system. Chilean M&E tools are the product of both cross-national lesson-drawing, and national policy learning experiences. The main M&E tools are centrally coordinated by the Ministry of Finance's Budget Office (Direccion de Presupuestos, or DIPRES) and promote the use of M&E information in government decision-making processes, particularly those related to the budget. These M&E tools have been, however, subject to a number of criticisms. As a result, the experience described in this note does not necessarily offer a model that can, or should, be easily transferred to other countries with different institutional contexts. Furthermore, this note does not reflect the latest changes, nor does it try to offer guidance for the future. However, the Chilean experience summarized here, covering the period of 1994-2010, provides interesting examples and highly relevant lessons about the benefits and limitations of M&E design and implementation.
Defining and Using Performance Indicators and Targets in Government M and E Systems

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-07) Castro, Manuel Fernando

Developing effective national monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems and/or performance budgeting initiatives requires well-defined formulation and implementation strategies for setting up performance indicators. These strategies vary depending on a country's priority for measuring results and on the scope and pace of its performance management reform objectives. Some countries have followed an incremental method for developing indicators, that is, progressively, at strategically selected programs/sectors (for example, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Colombia), while others have taken a comprehensive, 'big bang' approach by defining indicators for all existing programs and sectors at once (for example, Mexico and the Republic of Korea). In both cases, countries need to continuously work on their indicators to improve their quality and thus ensure that indicators can meaningfully inform government processes.
The Canadian Monitoring and Evaluation System

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-06) Lahey, Robert

Performance measurement, monitoring, and evaluation have long been part of the infrastructure within the federal government in Canada. With more than 30 years of formalized evaluation experience in most large federal departments and agencies, many lessons can be gained, not the least of which is the recognition that the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system itself is not static. The Canadian government has a formalized evaluation policy, standards, and guidelines; and these have been modified on three occasions over the past three decades. Changes have usually come about because of a public sector reform initiative such as the introduction of a results orientation to government management, a political issue that may have generated a demand for greater accountability and transparency in government, or a change in emphasis on where and how M&E information should be used in government. This chapter provides an overview of the Canadian M&E model, examining its defining elements and identifying key lessons learned.