Bolsa Familia Program: The perception of beneficiaries, public managers and community leaders as an instrument for evaluation in Urucuia-MG, Brazil

Abstract

This work is a case study in Urucuia town in Minas Gerais state, which aimed to characterize the perception of Bolsa Familia Program(BFP) effectiveness by the conception of 64 beneficiaries, 6 public managers involved in BFP (a Social Assistance Reference Center coordinator team (CRAS); two community health agents; a municipal secretary of administration representing the Executive; a councilman representing the legislative branch and a councillor of the Social Assistance Council of the municipality) and 2 community leaders. Therefore, the research undertaken here was carried out through descriptive analysis of the primary data and the interviews by content analysis. The results suggest that the BFP has contributed to include families who, without the program, would be in extreme poverty, and without access to basic services. However, the group of families who are satisfied and frequently satisfied with the resources received is very restricted, not exceeding 15%, and for 72% of the selected sample the financial resources available are still insufficient to maintain the support of the family group. On the other hand, public managers and community leaders understand that better management in the supervision of the program is necessary, as well as adherence of the local population in the awareness and clarification actions promoted by Cras.