Implementing a subnational results-oriented management and budgeting system. Lessons from Medellín, Colombia

"The purpose of this paper is to describe the budget process reform implemented in Medellín, and to analyze its actual performance and evaluate its success. The reform is changing the way public resources are allocated and executed, while gradually institutionalizing supply and demand-side practices beyond the government´s political cycles.This paper describes and analyzes how the RoB was designed and implemented, and the achievements of the system to date, in terms of resource allocation and the policy-making process. The following section describes the context of Medellín: political and economic trends, and the objectives of the budget reform. The third section presents the state of the budget process in Medellín as it was diagnosed before implementation. Section four describes the implementation process of the system, and section five addresses its major achievements. A final section includes some policy recommendations, which can be divided into two parts: (i) recommendations for consolidating the system as a main support tool of a RoM approach, and (ii) recommendations for replicating the system in other municipalities and subnational governments".