The article discusses the policies of reorganization of the primary health care taking the recent process of decentralization of SUS in Brazil. The central government's paper as inducement is emphasized. This can be verified by several measures and specific programs (PAB and PACS/PSF, mainly) that transfer for the municipal level the responsibility with the primary care. So it is in the municipal level that happens the process of implementation of that policies generating effects of difficult evaluation given the diversity of local contexts. The central argument emphasizes the importance of the evaluation process and intermediary results turned to the institutional performance that can be translated in accountability and public commitment, administration capacity and larger control and social participation - rather than final effects or more direct impacts on the offer of services. The conclusion is that in spite of all the difficulties and obstacles the process has strengthening the capacity of municipal administration regarding the organization of the primary health care.
Primary health care; Decentralization of primary health care; Evaluation in primary health care