ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book shows that the effective monitoring of the performance of government services and programs is essential to successful public sector reform. It focuses on performance monitoring based on experiences learned from comparative analysis among countries. The book explains why there is interest in performance monitoring in a given setting, why performance monitoring has failed or developed in certain settings, and identifies new ways for improving the design and use of performance monitoring. It proposes the ways to facilitate the design and implementation of performance monitoring. The book argues that measurement itself is not the limiting factor in having effective performance monitoring. It discusses the pressure to measure police activities in ways that are meaningful to citizens, and the need to go beyond traditional productivity and workload measures.
