While the last decade has seen Public Performance Reports (PPRs) become an essential accountability tool, the last year has seen CCAF lead several important advancements in this field.
PPRs are now entrenched as a fundamental tool for informing the public, the government, and the media about what is working, what is not, and how the spending of public monies can be made more effective.
Through the launch of the Program for Improved Public Performance Reporting (PIPPR) last year, funded in part by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, CCAF is working with partners across Canada to improve the quality and increase the use of public performance reports.
In 2007, the Government of Alberta took the initiative to create a more direct dialogue between the producers and users of PPR, one of the first examples of its kind. With the help of CCAF, direct discussions were held with legislators, the media, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on how to make PPRs more responsive to their needs. Through these discussions, the various groups were able to suggest concrete ideas for making performance reports more compelling, relevant, and accessible. Click here 
for a summary of “What We Heard”.
Foreshadowing many of the findings of the Alberta initiative, the CCAF-led Good Practices Report presents a new perspective on how to make performance reports more useful. Engaging the users, strong leadership by central agencies in coordinating the production of PPRs, and greater use of the web and other communications technologies emerged as the most promising ways to reach users and provide information when and in the manner that best meets their requirements. The need to increase the role of elected officials, particularly the members of Public Accounts Committees, also emerged as an important good practice. CCAF is also developing an interactive version of the study. Click here to see a pilot version.
Looking ahead, CCAF is launching a study that will examine how some legislative committees successfully use public performance reports on a regular basis. To do so, the study will engage elected officials and committee clerks through a series of interviews and questionnaires.
In addition to all this activity, CCAF has also launched its new Performance Reporting web site and created a regular PPR Update, which highlights a recent CCAF-led development in the field of public performance reporting. The Updates can be found on the Performance Reporting web site at www.performancereporting.ca.
These are a few examples of how CCAF is currently engaged in advancing the interest of its members by providing practical research-based solutions, leveraging the expertise of the public sector accountability community, and serving as a national platform for the exchange of best practices.
For more information on CCAF's Program for Improved Public Performance Reporting or to access CCAF research, visit: www.performancereporting.ca or contact Chris Hyde at chyde@ccaf-fcvi.com or by telephone at 613-241-6713 x 231.
En 2007, le gouvernement de l'Alberta a instauré un dialogue plus direct entre les auteurs et les utilisateurs des RPP, l'une des premières initiatives du genre. Avec l'aide de la CCAF-FCVI, des discussions directes ont été organisées avec les législateurs, les médias et les organisations non gouvernementales (ONG) sur les moyens de produire des RPP plus conformes à leurs besoins. Au travers de ces discussions, les différents groupes ont pu suggérer des idées concrètes pour rendre les RPP plus attrayants, plus pertinents et plus accessibles. 
Préfigurant beaucoup des conclusions qui découleront de l'initiative de l'Alberta, 