Performance Measurement and Global Governance: The Experience of the World Bank (Global INSIGHTS)

Performance management and performance measurement have become central topics in public sectors across the globe. Dissatisfaction with the performance of government organizations has become a pervasive element in the world we live in. Increasingly citizens are unwilling to blindly accept the level of work of a range of institutions within their societies. These include not only government institutions but also organizations in the health sector, education, foundations, and other areas. Yet it is not always clear why these concerns occur. There is an array of possible explanations. Some citizens worry about the expenditure of funds and are skeptical about the way that limited fiscal resources are allocated. Other citizens are dissatisfied with the results of the decisions made by various organizations and seek to modify or even eliminate those programs and projects that make up organization agendas. Still others believe that organizations are not responsive to those who are the beneficiaries of their work and, instead, have devised processes that insulate staff of those organizations from those who are supposed to be served by them. And yet others simply want to make sure that institutions are able to adapt to the changing circumstances of the twenty-first century. All of these developments have led to a belief that assessing the outcomes of organizations is a way to improve their activity. Various methods have been adopted to make that assessment; these have been termed performance measurement activities. Some of the methods emerge from an attempt to encourage governments to create market conditions within countries; others focus on the role played by civil society groups within those settings. They occur in national government settings as well as local and regional jurisdictions.