Performance Budgeting Initiatives in Western Balkans and Evidence Use in Public Budgeting

Using evidence in policymaking is very important in order to design and implement better, more efficient and effective public policies for citizens. This article focuses on public budgeting decision-making in Western Balkans countries and on performance-based budgeting initiatives they have undertaken, for an informed and democratic decision-making process. The aim here is that with a comparative analysis of WBs, to conclude about the performance systems in action, performance measurement and performance information use in public budgeting. The main research question is: do policymakers or budgeting actors of WB countries use evidence (performance measurements and benchmarking) in the budgeting process for the upcoming budgetary year? The article will use primary and secondary data and information from national and international sources and documents, in order to give an answer to the research question. The paper is organized in three sections: the first section is a literature review of the use of evidence in public policies, the second one is related with performance and program budgeting formats and the third section is related with performance budgeting initiatives in WBs from a comparative perspective and evidence use in public budgeting. Nevertheless, this study has several limitations related with the difficulties to obtain the necessary data and information to fully analyse the chosen budget formats in each country, and their use in resource allocation. Future studies in the field of public budgeting can explore further the use of performance budgets and their implementation in achieving results in these countries and the policymakers´ engagement in achieving and sustaining best practices and benchmarking. Received: 22 October 2024 / Accepted: 6 February 2025 / Published: 06 March 2025