Performance budgeting

This paper is the fourth in a series about institutional development (ID) in government in the developing world. The first sought to establish a general understanding of ID. The second tested ID in the diagnostic phase of organisational analysis in civil service reform. The third looked at the spectrum of ID in civil service reform, in terms of client‐based functional analysis leading to reformed structures and processes. This paper explores the concept and development of these processes, under the generic term performance budgeting (PB). The US federal experience of PB is outlined; it being the birthplace of both the concept and the practice. A comparative review of some OECD countries and US state experience is offered. Resulting general principles are then set against recent practical PB experience by this author in Tanzania and the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The result is to advocate four basic pre‐conditions as the cornerstones of performance budgeting.