Evaluating OECD Performance on Performance & Evaluation:

Successes, Challenges and Lessons

Ronnie Downes

Deputy Head, Budgeting and Public Expenditures OECD

11th Annual Network on Performance & Results

Paris, 26-27 November 2015

Performance Budgeting – Simple in Theory…

€ ₩ $

…Difficult in Practice

1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5

Pay cut for head of programme/organisation

Programme transferred to other…

Negative consequences for leaders' evaluations

Programme eliminated

More staff assigned to programme/organisation

New leadership brought in

Budget freezes

Budget increases

More training provided to staff assigned

Budget decreases

More intense monitoring in the future

Poor performance made public

No consequences

2007 2011

What happens when performance objectives are not met?

Objectives for today

• Recap main findings of 2011 Survey

• Identify key themes and topics for 2016 Survey

– Breakout sessions before lunch

– Reports and discussion after lunch

• Set our expectations and timelines for 2016 work

The institutional and procedural context for Performance Budgeting is developing

• Link to KNIs?

• Standardised PB?

• Structures?

• PB Agreements?

• Transparency

• Accountability – Government (achieving strategic goals?)

– Organisational (delivering our targets?)

– Managerial (delivering my targets?)

• Austerity – Inform difficult government decisions, cuts

• Efficiency – Allocative (where resources have best effect)

– Operational (value-for-money, “more with less”)

• Culture-shift (focus on results and delivery)

Performance information is used for a variety of purposes

Information on outcomes and impacts is not (yet?) widely used

• Inputs?

• Outputs?

• Outcomes?

• Ratings?

• Efficiency?

• Horizontal themes?

Some challenges remain is using Performance Information; other challenges are being addressed

Accurate timely data

Relevance for budget

Info overload

Performance culture

Too bureaucratic

Lack of PB guidance

Evaluation and Spending Review

• Lots of evaluation guidance – not so much compliance

• Many different institutional models of evaluation

• Evaluation results used only sporadically in budgeting

– but better impact when used in Spending Review

• Half of OECD countries using Spending Review

• Usually feeds in to budget process

• “Efficiencies”, “adjustments” rather than “elimination”

Breakout A – Performance Information & Budgeting

• Is it necessary or desirable that Performance Objectives to anchored in Outcome Goals / Benchmarks / KNIs?

• What is the right level of ambition for Performance

Budgeting – to improve efficiency, enhance accountability, or achieve goals?

• Is it worthwhile to think in terms of standardising Performance Budgeting frameworks in OECD countries and regions? Why? / why not?

• Based on the answers: What new information do we need?

And: What needs to change?

Breakout B – Use of Performance Information & Open Data

• How to ensure Consistency, Coherence, Continuity in performance information for its various purposes?

• What institutional approaches best support the quality and usefulness of performance information?

• How useful is performance information, at present, for policy decisions on resource allocation and re-prioritisation? Is this information actually used for assessing effectiveness and impact of programmes?

• Is performance information used by citizens, parliaments, civil society? What are the implications of open data / digital government for performance budgeting?

• Based on the answers: What new information do we need? And: What needs to change?

Breakout C – Evaluation & Spending Review

• What are the models of evaluation currently in place? Are there established reference frameworks, institutional supports?

• Should there be common frameworks and approaches for evaluating spending, regulation, and other tools of government action?

• How can the evaluations be made relevant for performance budgeting?

• What is the balance between ongoing evaluation and periodic spending reviews? Do they serve different purposes?

• Based on the answers: What new information do we need? And: What needs to change?

Practical information

Breakout A – main room (cc12) – Mr Karl-Erik Tender

Breakout B – room cc16 – Mr Ivor Beazley

Breakout C – room cc18 – Mme Véronique Fouque

Time for discussion: after coffee: 11:45-13:00

Report and discussion: after lunch: 14:30 – 15:30

Towards “Guiding Principles of Performance Budgeting”?

a) use ready-made performance data from policy cycle

b) clear programme logic linking inputs, outputs, outcomes

c) seamless link to government-wide strategy and goals

d) avoid information overload – the “vital few” indicators

e) Include national and international benchmarks

f) organisational, managerial accountability for results

– Establish routines of behaviour within organisations

g) audited and auditable performance targets

h) citizen- and CSO-accessible data