Monitoring and evaluating actions implemented to confront AIDS in Brazil: civil society's participation

Abstract

The United Nations Declaration of Commitment on HIV/Aids recommends that governments conduct periodic analysis of actions undertaken in confronting the HIV/Aids epidemic that involve civil society's participation. Specific instruments and mechanisms should be created towards this end. This paper examines some of the responses of the Brazilian government to this recommendation. Analysis contemplates the Declaration's proposals as to civil society's participation in monitoring and evaluating such actions and their adequacy with respect to Brazilian reality. The limitations and potentials of MONITORAIDS, the matrix of indicators created by Brazil's Programa Nacional de DST/Aids [National Program for STD/AIDS] to monitor the epidemic are discussed. Results indicate that MONITORAIDS's complexity hampers its use by the conjunction of actors involved in the struggle against Aids. The establishment of mechanisms that facilitate the appropriation of this system by all those committed to confronting the epidemic in Brazil is suggested.