Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, we are grappling with the challenge of balancing the need to co-ordinate, standardise and drive the outcomes approach from the Presidency, at the centre of government, on the one hand, with the need to ensure that departments take real ownership of the approach on the other. One of the common perverse effects of performance measurement is that there is a tendency for managers to focus on compliance with externally imposed performance management systems. This is as opposed to taking ownership of the system and using it to improve the performance of their departments. We will only be able to say that the outcomes approach has been successful if we can move beyond compliance, and if most of the managers in our departments and municipalities have taken ownership of the approach.