Integrated Results Based Management in Botswana: Institutions, Documentation and progress to date

This paper analyses Botswana’s efforts at implementing the IRBM system. IRBM is a way of reforming public sectors through helping governments focus on proper, well-timed achievement of relevant goals and objectives. The Government of Botswana introduced the IRBM in 2008 with the assistance of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The stated aims of the reforms included ensuring that planning and financing national development are results focused and responsive to the needs of citizens, both in the short and long term (GoB/UNDP, 2009). However, the process has faced a number of challenges, resulting in less progress than was hoped for. Presently the National Strategy Office (NSO) is leading the process of reinvigorating IRBM and institutionalising it in the country. Given the potential for IRBM to reform government operations, this paper describes IRBM and analyses its strengths and weaknesses. It outlines its components and, in order to clarify its potential, gives accounts of a number of international experiences with IRBM systems, the challenges faced therein and the solutions often prescribed for such.