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“It is bringing that knowledge into our decision making.”

New Zealand isn’t alone in this approach. Scotland has a similar tool called the National Performance Framework. Scottish minister of public finances and digital government Kate Forbes said in an interview that their approach is to focus more on what the government achieves than what it announces.

“The National Performance Framework does what most citizens and most governments are trying to do, which is to shift our focus on outcomes rather than inputs,” she said.

They are the kinds of things that will make the biggest difference

She said the Scottish government hasn’t integrated the philosophy as deep into the budget process as New Zealand, but it does weigh deeply on decision making.

The goal is to get everyone thinking about what they’re achieving not what they’re spending.

“It’s trying to get all the different organizations, whether that is government or our wider civic society, to think about outcomes.”

Both Robertson and Forbes said one of the goals of the approach is to get different government departments and levels of government to work together on problems, breaking down silos.

Robertson said most of the problems the government is trying to solve are long-term structural ones and they won’t be solved by just one department or one investment.

Traditionally, budget are also opportunities to announce new tax cuts or infrastructure projects that have an immediate political payback. Robertson said those aren’t the problems his government is trying to fix and they are rolling the dice politically, hoping they will get credit for tackling the bigger problems.