This work is an outcome of a broader research agenda that aims at assessing the efficiency of some remarkable Brazilian Government's social programs. Here, efficiency means the actual (observed)/optimal (targets) ratio for both inputs and outputs that the programs use to achieve their...

This paper tries do motivate the discussion of evaluation problems in the context of social programs. Initially, the text explores the point of view that social programs should be recognized as complex organizations. In the case, there are multiple objectives, decentralization, and coordination...