This paper is a survey of the practice of results-oriented – or performance-based – public expenditure management in low income developing countries. It is based on seven country case study working papers commissioned by the Centre for Aid and Public Expenditure at the ODI with a view to comparing and contrasting the experience of countries of broadly similar size and per capita income, and to identifying factors conducive to at least some elements of performance budgeting. The paper also draws on a commissioned working paper which surveys recent descriptive and interpretative literature on programme and performance budgeting in OECD countries, and on ODI-CAPE desk studies on public expenditure and aid issues in education and health and local government finance and performance management.