Street-level bureaucrats’ non-compliance in policy transfer: How to assess the success and failure of policy transfer and outcomes

The COVID-19 pandemic has made policy transfer imperative for countries in dealing with this unprecedented global crisis. Policy transfer is theoretically considered successful when an external policy is legally adopted into the recipient country’s legislation and achieves its intended goals. However, the definitions of policy transfer success and failure remain ambiguous, particularly when assessing the discrepancy between policy (non-)compliance and policy outcomes. Drawing on a unique case study of Vietnam’s policy on separating newborns from mothers with COVID-19 and the street-level bureaucrats’ non-compliance observed during the first delivery of an affected mother in the country, this paper demonstrates that non-compliance with transferred policies - driven by street-level bureaucrats’ pursuit of optimal policy outcomes and professional confidence - can result in both policy transfer failure and desirable policy outcomes. Accordingly, the paper proposes an analytical framework for evaluating policy transfer success and failure and policy outcomes that incorporates non-compliance as a key variable. It further examines the roles of street-level bureaucrats in policy transfer, as well as the contexts and motivations behind their non-compliance. It also offers practical implications for policymakers, emphasizing the need to anticipate potential non-compliance and ensure flexibility in policymaking and implementation in crisis conditions.