The Working Time Reduction Initiative implemented a major reform in the Israeli public sector, reducing the workweek from 42 to 40 hours. Given the scale of the reform, evaluating its effectiveness and impact required a rigorous mixed-method approach. By combining longitudinal administrative data from more than 16,000 employees with survey responses, interviews, and focus groups, the study generated robust evidence on changes in working hours, productivity, well-being, and w

This post recommends an academic paper by Dr. Yuval Ofek that addresses the challenges of evaluating community-level social exclusion interventions, particularly within university-community partnerships. Drawing on an action research case study in northern Israel, the paper explores how evaluation can balance learning and improvement with accountability demands in complex settings.

This post reflects on the evaluation of The Hive’s Accelerator, Israel’s flagship program for social entrepreneurship. Using a theory-based, developmental, and longitudinal evaluation design, the evaluation followed ventures over time to assess learning, sustainability, and scaling. Findings show strong contributions to entrepreneurs’ capacities and strategy, and demonstrate how adaptive, learning-oriented evaluation supported continuous program improvement.