Service delivery
Making decentralisation work for development: methodology of the local government performance measurement (LGPM) framework
Measuring and tracking the performance of local governments in Indonesia
Authors:
Publisher:
World Bank Research, 2008
Indonesia has been transformed from a highly centralised country into one of the most decentralised countries. Since 2001, local governments (LGs) have become the main drivers of public service delivery, and have had to dramatically expand their capabilities. This paper discusses the local government performance management (LGPM) tool used to measure and track the performance of LGs. The purpose is to provide both central and local policy-makers, development partners, and citizens with a simple and transparent tool for gauging LG performance across districts and within different domains of LG activity, as well as a set of best practices that can be replicated. The LGPM tool also measures the performance of LGs against targets that are known to be achievable within a relatively short timeframe and within the Indonesian context.
The LGPM tool seeks to capture the four key dimensions of LG performance: public financial management; fiscal performance; service delivery; and the investment climate. It includes more than one hundred indicators, providing a snapshot of overall performance and giving insight into the specific domains that drive overall performance. It highlights areas requiring further scrutiny, together with other more targeted survey instruments.
The LGPM tool is a simple tree, in which individual performance indicators can be grouped into functional areas within four broad thematic pillars. Each pillar is subdivided into a number of functional areas that correspond to the different dimensions of LGs’ ability to affect outcomes. For example, in the service delivery pillar, each of the sub-areas (education, health, infrastructure, and cross-sectoral) is further divided into three functional dimensions, namely planning and monitoring, implementation, and pro-poor programs.
In order to capture overall ‘performance’, the LGPM tool aggregates the four thematic ‘pillars’ covering LG performance, that is, public financial management, fiscal performance, service delivery, and the investment climate, into one simple indicator of overall performance.
The LGPM tool was piloted in three locations and results indicated that most indicators were relevant in capturing LG performance.
