Transformational budgeting: A holistic approach for delivering results

Abstract

A new trend is appearing in government budgets: using the budget process to help transform society and achieve results in relation to cross-cutting government goals, referred to in this paper as “transformational agendas”, often seeking to overcome persistent economic, social or environmental issues, which require action from across different policy areas. Transformational budgeting is a holistic approach to budgeting that helps align disparate activities with central goals, or agendas. The paper reviews how budget processes have evolved in modern public finance, with a view to enhancing the efficient and effective use of inputs to deliver results. It presents the emergence of transformational budgeting as a tool to help transform societies in response to new global agendas, such as the SDGs. The paper showcases transformational budgeting in practice, drawing on experiences from Spain.