posted on 2024-09-05, 22:21authored byXiulan Zhang
In recent years, much attention has been paid to the Chinese government’s
experimental approach to developing policy, but few detailed evaluations of the
effectiveness of the approach exist. The development of a rural health insurance
system in China provides a test case to examine how experimental policy
development can work in social and health policy. Faced with the need for
multiple simultaneous reforms, which interact in complex ways, policy
experimentation may be a way to ‘implement the un-implementable’ – even in
contexts of low and varying implementation capacity. But it must be managed
well, and consideration must be given to feedback, policy coordination, and
capacity development.
Funding
DFID
History
Publisher
Institute of Development Studies (IDS)
Citation
Xiulan, Z. (2013) 'Evaluating Experimental Policymaking: Lessons from China's Rural Health Reforms', IDS Policy Briefing 46, Brighton: IDS