This study provides a conceptual framework for analysing Results-Based Approaches to improving public sector effectiveness and efficiency according to their actor constellation and shared characteristics. Though the importance of functioning public sector agencies and organizations for sustainable development is accepted, public sector reform efforts have achieved only modest success. Results-Based Approaches aim at improving public sector performance through the establishment of reward modalities on the domestic and international levels, and the authors evaluate the potential of these approaches to provide an entry point for development cooperation. Applying their framework to empirical data obtained from fieldwork in Rwanda, they analyse the main domestic performance approach – Imhigo – and suggest how this might be strengthened.

This study provides a conceptual framework for analysing Results-Based Approaches to improving public sector effectiveness and efficiency according to their actor constellation and shared characteristics. Though the importance of functioning public sector agencies and organizations for sustainable development is accepted, public sector reform efforts have achieved only modest success. Results-Based Approaches aim at improving public sector performance through the establishment of reward modalities on the domestic and international levels, and the authors evaluate the potential of these approaches to provide an entry point for development cooperation. Applying their framework to empirical data obtained from fieldwork in Rwanda, they analyse the main domestic performance approach – Imhigo – and suggest how this might be strengthened.