budgeting. OECD countries that adopt performance budgeting tend to develop a performance-informed budget process, where M&E instruments serve as analytical tools. In this model, performance indicators are integrated into the budget and regular evaluations are scheduled into the budget cycle. Performance indicators and evaluations are institutionally considered during budget formulation. This process can take various forms. Inevitably, the right setup will depend on the specific administrative context. The main design challenge is how to tailor the system to the likely users of M&E information and their position within the budgeting framework. This is a universal concern, irrespective of a country’s stage of development. Rajiv Sharma addresses in Chapter 7 the basic concepts relating to the use of social accountability and information technology to monitor and evaluate public services and other governance processes that affect citizens. With the help of simple though practical examples that use these concepts, Sharma explains how to bring a qualitative change in monitoring and evaluation by making the whole process more citizen centered and outcome oriented. In turn, these practices can help improve the quality of service delivery. The chapter’s arguments are illustrated by several examples from India.
Components and Tools of M&E Systems The second section of the book introduces the most important tools commonly used in M&E, with a focus on practical applications in context. The section covers defining and monitoring results indicators (Chapter 8), different types of evaluations (Chapter 9), how to reconstruct baseline data for ongoing programs (Chapter 10), as well as the importance of mixed-method approaches (Chapter 11). Policy makers and program managers are faced every day with major decisions resulting from insufficient funding, ongoing complaints about service delivery, unmet needs among different population groups, and limited results on the ground. Developing effective M&E systems requires well-defined formulation and implementation strategies for 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, argues Manuel Fernando Castro (Chapter 8). Castro’s chapter directly links to the discussion in Chapter 5 of key steps for setting up sectoral monitoring systems and how officials can go about defining good indicators. The extensive literature on performance management indicators contains relatively few references to practical elements of successful government implementation of performance indicator systems. Castro’s chapter encapsulates some of 14
Building Better Policies