On September 10, 2008, the President of Mexico Felipe Calderón enacted a decree which introduced the ‘Programa Especial de Mejora de la Gestión’ (PEMG) (Diario Oficial 2008). This programme was intended to ‘renovate the functioning of the Federal Public Administration’ with ‘a focus on results’. While not a strikingly original reform initiative per se, the PEMG was nonetheless an interesting proposal for at least one reason: its title explicitly alluded to the Chilean government’s ‘Programa de Mejoramiento de la Gestión’ (PMG). Indeed, the Mexican PEMG had originated in a series of exchanges between officials from these countries during 2005-2007. With the financial support of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), Mexican officials had travelled to Santiago de Chile, and Chilean consultants (and former public servants) had travelled to Mexico City. All in all, the story behind the PEMG seemed yet another typical case of policy transfer.