[Training local teams as a strategy to institutionalize evaluation in the health system]

This article reports on the methodology used by the research team of the State University in Maringá in the Baseline Study in 20 municipalities in the States of Paraná and Santa Catarina, Brazil, with more than 100,000 inhabitants each, in the implementation of the Project for Expansion and Consolidation of the Family Health Strategy. Workshops to discuss the evaluation of programs, construction and application of research instruments, site visits to supervise activities in disseminating the program, and development of a database with the local and regional scientific output were carried out. There was an obvious sense of responsibility and commitment on the part of municipal and State representatives, the majority of whom immediately agreed to the activities. They also showed interest in both the learning process and institutionalization of the evaluation. Fourteen municipalities incorporated other actors to build a support network for the evaluation of the primary health care system. The strategies contributed to the incorporation of evaluation into the planning process, indicating that training can be a constructive and powerful mechanism for institutionalizing evaluation.