Manufacturing partnerships: evaluation in the context of government reform

Current efforts to reform government have promoted the development of inter-governmental and inter-sectoral partnerships to implement public policies and more effectively deliver services. This paper probes the additional complexities posed for program evaluation by the development of partnerships, drawing on a study of the U.S. Manufacturing Extension Partnership. The high-lighted challenges include diverse partner objectives, information deficiencies, variances in partner contributions and outcome effects, and difficulties in tracking a full set of benefits and costs, including learing benefits, intitutional improvements, and transaction costs. Contrasting evaluation strategies to address the challenges of evaluating partnerships are considered.