Eight attention points when evaluating large-scale public sector reforms

This chapter analyses the challenges related to evaluations of large-scale public sector
reforms. It is based on a meta-evaluation of the evaluation of the reform of the
Norwegian Labour Market and Welfare Administration (the NAV-reform) in Norway,
which entailed both a significant reorganization of the central, regional and local
government and a social policy reform. Meta-evaluations assess the usefulness of one
or more evaluations and should not be confused with meta-analyses. The purpose of
this meta-evaluation was to identify general principles for organizing the evaluations
of large-scale public sector reforms.
Based on the analysis, eight crucial points of attention when evaluating large-scale
public sector reforms are elaborated. We discuss their reasons and argue that other
countries will face the same challenges and thus can learn from the experiences of
Norway.