Marc Robinson Blog

The Expenditure Control Classification: A Conceptual Missing Link

- July 14, 2026 - Marc Robinson comment

What is the appropriate role of line items in a performance budgeting system? How should the budget classification relate to the chart of accounts? What should be the role of the functional classification of expenditure?…

Budgeting / PFM / Spending Review

Ministry Ceilings and Top-Down Budgeting

- May 14, 2026 - Marc Robinson 1 Comment

In my recent technical note Top-Down Budgeting Today, I set out a clear alternative to the failed hard ministry ceilings doctrine. The HCM doctrine, which has become PFM conventional wisdom, asserts that governments should set…

Accruals / Budgeting / Fiscal policy

The Golden Rule & Fiscal Responsibility

- January 26, 2026 - Marc Robinson comment

The golden rule of public finance is a time-honored fiscal policy principle that says that governments should only use debt for capital expenditure and not to fund current operations. I've always been a supporter of…

Health Care / Monitoring & Evaluation / Uncategorized

Access and Outcomes

- January 12, 2026 - Marc Robinson comment

Ensuring access to government-provided basic services such as education and healthcare is vital. However, what ultimately matters are outcomes, and access does not guarantee outcomes. This is a lesson that we have learnt the hard…

PFM

Reimagining Public Finance? (Part 2)

- September 10, 2025 - Marc Robinson 3 Comments

The Reimagining Public Finance (RPF) team has put forward for discussion a thoughtful set of proposals intended to improve technical work in public financial management (PFM) and public finances more generally. These proposals are designed…

Budgeting / PFM

Reimagining Public Finance? (Part 1)

- September 9, 2025 - Marc Robinson 5 Comments

Reimagining Public Finance (RPF) is an initiative by a committed group within the World Bank to address a significant problem that affects public financial management (PFM) and public finance reform practice. The problem is that…

Accruals / Budgeting / PFM

Putting Accruals to Work

- August 25, 2025 - Marc Robinson comment

Many governments have invested large sums of money in the development of accrual accounting. Unfortunately, for most of these governments this has to date been a poor investment. Why? Because many are making little or…

Budgeting / Monitoring & Evaluation / Performance Budgeting / Spending Review

A Strategic Approach to Performance Information

- July 9, 2025 - Marc Robinson comment

Performance information is crucial for high-performance government. Performance budgeting is part of that: budget decision-making needs to be informed by good information about the effectiveness and efficiency of government spending. The approach to performance information…

Budgeting / Monitoring & Evaluation / PFM / Spending Review

Evaluation, Spending Review & the Budget

- February 26, 2025 - Marc Robinson comment

Evaluation should be a key source of information for budget decision-makers. In practice, however, it has had surprisingly little impact on decisions about what to fund and by how much1. This raises the question: what…

Monitoring & Evaluation

Evaluation: What about Efficiency?

- February 19, 2025 - Marc Robinson comment

Is efficiency analysis the poor relation in the current wave of evaluation reforms? Governments around the world have been establishing government-wide evaluation policies; creating central units and task forces to promote evaluation; and encouraging or…