The Cabinet approved the Prime Minister's proposal to upgrade government-work infrastructure in the areas of policy planning, measurement, evaluation and monitoring. Purposes, goals, and clear performance indicators will be added to government decisions to enable monitoring of policy delivery and attainment of goals.

On Sunday, 14 September 2008, the Israeli Cabinet approved the proposal of the Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, to substantially upgrade the government’s work infrastructure in planning, measuring, evaluating and monitoring policy. The proposal was formulated by the director-general of the Prime Minister's Office, Raanan Dinur, and the Cabinet secretary, Ovad Yehezkel, with the active participation of the Department of Policy Planning and the Department of Coordination and Monitoring, both of the Prime Minister's Office and the Budget Department in the Ministry of Finance.

The change reflects the principles established by the OECD, which Israel seeks to join. Twenty-six OECD countries already relate to performance indicators in decision-making, and most were introducing new initiatives for measuring result in recent years. The knowledge gathered from these countries regarding measurement of government activity assisted in outlining the language and the framework of the Israeli reform.

Under the decision approved on Sunday, decisions will be categorized, so that policies that require implementation will include a statement of purpose, goals, and indicators to monitor processes, outputs and outcomes. The different criteria will promote assimilation of a result-based thinking in government work and increase its effectiveness. Simultaneously, it will improve a transparent evaluation and monitoring of decisions.

The director-general of the Prime Minister's Office, Raanan Dinur, spoke about the process that came to its conclusion today: “Over the past year, we took upon ourselves the task of leading the process to change the manner in which the government works,  emphasizing assimilation of a culture of results-based planning, evaluation, measuring, and monitoring. We found that government ministries have top-rank professionals who understood the need to provide the public with results, in the framework of a professional planning process. The decision is another milestone in a line of changes that we have been leading, among them determining the need to present a ministerial work-plan and strategic status assessment annually, alongside with the effort to establish and empower the policy units in government ministries.”

Cabinet secretary, Ovad Yehezkel, said: “I am concerned about the fact that the government does not have an organized system that will ensure execution of decisions it approves, and makes it possible for the decision-makers and the general public to obtain information on implementation and attainment of goals. The government makes decisions that establish and shape the manner in which we live in Israel, but no thorough monitoring is in place to check whether the expected results of the decision were achieved. I am happy that, after a year of comprehensive staff work, in which a great number of government officials took part, we managed to come up with an important change that will improve efficiency in staff work and raise its commitment to providing effective and quality service to the citizens of Israel."