IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0173068.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The effects of cash transfers and vouchers on the use and quality of maternity care services: A systematic review

Author

Listed:
  • Benjamin M Hunter
  • Sean Harrison
  • Anayda Portela
  • Debra Bick

Abstract

Background: Cash transfers and vouchers are forms of ‘demand-side financing’ that have been widely used to promote maternal and newborn health in low- and middle-income countries during the last 15 years. Methods: This systematic review consolidates evidence from seven published systematic reviews on the effects of different types of cash transfers and vouchers on the use and quality of maternity care services, and updates the systematic searches to June 2015 using the Joanna Briggs Institute approach for systematic reviewing. The review protocol for this update was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42015020637). Results: Data from 51 studies (15 more than previous reviews) and 22 cash transfer and voucher programmes suggest that approaches tied to service use (either via payment conditionalities or vouchers for selected services) can increase use of antenatal care, use of a skilled attendant at birth and in the case of vouchers, postnatal care too. The strongest evidence of positive effect was for conditional cash transfers and uptake of antenatal care, and for vouchers for maternity care services and birth with a skilled birth attendant. However, effects appear to be shaped by a complex set of social and healthcare system barriers and facilitators. Studies have typically focused on an initial programme period, usually two or three years after initiation, and many lack a counterfactual comparison with supply-side investment. There are few studies to indicate that programmes have led to improvements in quality of maternity care or maternal and newborn health outcomes. Conclusion: Future research should use multiple intervention arms to compare cost-effectiveness with similar investment in public services, and should look beyond short- to medium-term service utilisation by examining programme costs, longer-term effects on service utilisation and health outcomes, and the equity of those effects.

Suggested Citation

  • Benjamin M Hunter & Sean Harrison & Anayda Portela & Debra Bick, 2017. "The effects of cash transfers and vouchers on the use and quality of maternity care services: A systematic review," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(3), pages 1-37, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0173068
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0173068
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0173068
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0173068&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0173068?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Caldes, Natalia & Coady, David & Maluccio, John A., 2006. "The cost of poverty alleviation transfer programs: A comparative analysis of three programs in Latin America," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 818-837, May.
    2. Powell-Jackson, Timothy & Mazumdar, Sumit & Mills, Anne, 2015. "Financial incentives in health: New evidence from India's Janani Suraksha Yojana," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 154-169.
    3. Verónica Amarante & Marco Manacorda & Edward Miguel & Andrea Vigorito, 2011. "Do Cash Transfers Improve Birth Outcomes? Evidence from Matched Vital Statistics, Social Security and Program Data," NBER Working Papers 17690, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Najy Benhassine & Florencia Devoto & Esther Duflo & Pascaline Dupas & Victor Pouliquen, 2015. "Turning a Shove into a Nudge? A "Labeled Cash Transfer" for Education," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 7(3), pages 86-125, August.
    5. Guanais, F.C., 2013. "The combined effects of the expansion of primary health care and conditional cash transfers on infant mortality in Brazil, 1998-2010," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 103(11), pages 2000-2006.
    6. Thaddeus, Sereen & Maine, Deborah, 1994. "Too far to walk: Maternal mortality in context," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 38(8), pages 1091-1110, April.
    7. Davis, Benjamin & Handa, Sudhanshu & Hypher, Nicola & Winder Rossi, Natalia & Winters, Paul & Yablon (ed.), 2016. "From Evidence to Action: The Story of Cash Transfers and Impact Evaluation in Sub Saharan Africa," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198769446.
    8. Joshi, Shareen & Sivaram, Anusuya, 2014. "Does it Pay to Deliver? An Evaluation of India’s Safe Motherhood Program," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 434-447.
    9. Obare, Francis & Warren, Charlotte & Abuya, Timothy & Askew, Ian & Bellows, Ben, 2014. "Assessing the population-level impact of vouchers on access to health facility delivery for women in Kenya," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 183-189.
    10. Gopalan, Saji S. & Mutasa, Ronald & Friedman, Jed & Das, Ashis, 2014. "Health sector demand-side financial incentives in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review on demand- and supply-side effects," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 72-83.
    11. Jose Urquieta & Gustavo Angeles & Thomas Mroz & Hector Lamadrid-Figueroa & Bernardo Hernández, 2009. "Impact of Oportunidades on Skilled Attendance at Delivery in Rural Areas," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 57(3), pages 539-558, April.
    12. Ahmed, Shakil & Khan, M. Mahmud, 2011. "Is demand-side financing equity enhancing? Lessons from a maternal health voucher scheme in Bangladesh," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(10), pages 1704-1710, May.
    13. Nguyen, Ha T.H. & Hatt, Laurel & Islam, Mursaleena & Sloan, Nancy L. & Chowdhury, Jamil & Schmidt, Jean-Olivier & Hossain, Atia & Wang, Hong, 2012. "Encouraging maternal health service utilization: An evaluation of the Bangladesh voucher program," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(7), pages 989-996.
    14. David Coady, 2004. "Targeting Outcomes Redux," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 19(1), pages 61-85.
    15. Storeng, Katerini Tagmatarchi & Baggaley, Rebecca F. & Ganaba, Rasmané & Ouattara, Fatoumata & Akoum, Mélanie S. & Filippi, Véronique, 2008. "Paying the price: The cost and consequences of emergency obstetric care in Burkina Faso," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(3), pages 545-557, February.
    16. Sarah Baird & Craig McIntosh & Berk Özler, 2011. "Cash or Condition? Evidence from a Cash Transfer Experiment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 126(4), pages 1709-1753.
    17. Sudhanshu Handa & Carolyn Huang & Nicola Hypher & Clarissa Teixeira & Fabio V. Soares & Benjamin Davis, 2012. "Targeting effectiveness of social cash transfer programmes in three African countries," Journal of Development Effectiveness, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(1), pages 78-108, March.
    18. Powell-Jackson, Timothy & Hanson, Kara, 2012. "Financial incentives for maternal health: Impact of a national programme in Nepal," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 271-284.
    19. Barham, Tania, 2011. "A healthier start: The effect of conditional cash transfers on neonatal and infant mortality in rural Mexico," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1), pages 74-85, January.
    20. Claire Watt & Timothy Abuya & Charlotte E Warren & Francis Obare & Lucy Kanya & Ben Bellows, 2015. "Can Reproductive Health Voucher Programs Improve Quality of Postnatal Care? A Quasi-Experimental Evaluation of Kenya’s Safe Motherhood Voucher Scheme," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(4), pages 1-20, April.
    21. M. R. Bhatia & A. C. Gorter, 2007. "Improving access to reproductive and child health services in developing countries: are competitive voucher schemes an option?," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(7), pages 975-981.
    22. Ayesha De Costa & Kranti S Vora & Kayleigh Ryan & Parvathy Sankara Raman & Michele Santacatterina & Dileep Mavalankar, 2014. "The State-Led Large Scale Public Private Partnership ‘Chiranjeevi Program’ to Increase Access to Institutional Delivery among Poor Women in Gujarat, India: How Has It Done? What Can We Learn?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(5), pages 1-8, May.
    23. Natalie Carvalho & Naveen Thacker & Subodh S Gupta & Joshua A Salomon, 2014. "More Evidence on the Impact of India's Conditional Cash Transfer Program, Janani Suraksha Yojana: Quasi-Experimental Evaluation of the Effects on Childhood Immunization and Other Reproductive and Chil," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(10), pages 1-13, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ashrita Saran & Howard White & Kerry Albright & Jill Adona, 2020. "Mega‐map of systematic reviews and evidence and gap maps on the interventions to improve child well‐being in low‐ and middle‐income countries," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(4), December.
    2. Kuwawenaruwa, August & Ramsey, Kate & Binyaruka, Peter & Baraka, Jitihada & Manzi, Fatuma & Borghi, Josephine, 2019. "Implementation and effectiveness of free health insurance for the poor pregnant women in Tanzania: A mixed methods evaluation," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 225(C), pages 17-25.
    3. Yuta Yokobori & Hiroyuki Kiyohara & Nadila Mulati & Kaung Suu Lwin & Truong Quy Quoc Bao & Myo Nyein Aung & Motoyuki Yuasa & Masami Fujita, 2023. "Roles of Social Protection to Promote Health Service Coverage among Vulnerable People toward Achieving Universal Health Coverage: A Literature Review of International Organizations," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(9), pages 1-16, May.
    4. Indrani Gupta & Arjun Roy, 2023. "What really empowers women? Taking another look at economic empowerment," Journal of Social and Economic Development, Springer;Institute for Social and Economic Change, vol. 25(1), pages 17-31, June.
    5. Yeoh, Eng-Kiong & Yam, Carrie H.K. & Chong, Ka-Chun & Chow, Tsz-Yu & Fung, Valerie L.H. & Wong, Eliza L.Y. & Griffiths, Sian M., 2020. "An evaluation of universal vouchers as a demand-side subsidy to change primary care utilization: A retrospective analysis of longitudinal services utilisation and voucher claims data from a survey coh," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 124(2), pages 189-198.
    6. Edward N. Okeke, 2021. "Money and my mind: Maternal cash transfers and mental health," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(11), pages 2879-2904, November.
    7. Hiroyuki Egami & Tomoya Matsumoto, 2020. "Mobile Money Use and Healthcare Utilization: Evidence from Rural Uganda," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-34, May.
    8. Seohyun Lee & Abdul-jabiru Adam, 2021. "Designing a Logic Model for Mobile Maternal Health e-Voucher Programs in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: An Interpretive Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(1), pages 1-37, December.
    9. Justine Briaux & Yves Martin-Prevel & Sophie Carles & Sandra Fortin & Yves Kameli & L. Adubra & A. Renk & Y. Agboka & M. Romedenne & F. Mukantambara & J. van Dyck & J. Boko & Renaud Becquet & M. Savy, 2020. "Evaluation of an unconditional cash transfer program targeting children's first-1,000-days linear growth in rural Togo: A cluster-randomized controlled trial," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) hal-03165338, HAL.
    10. Junjie Huang & Chun-Ho Ngai & Man-Sing Tin & Qingjie Sun & Pamela Tin & Eng-Kiong Yeoh & Martin C. S. Wong, 2021. "Healthcare Voucher Scheme for Screening of Cardiovascular Risk Factors: A Population-Based Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(20), pages 1-16, October.
    11. Okeke, Edward N. & Abubakar, Isa S., 2020. "Healthcare at the beginning of life and child survival: Evidence from a cash transfer experiment in Nigeria," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    12. Mary Kopriva, 2023. "Universal Cash Transfer Impacts on Maternal and Infant Health," Working Papers 2023-02, University of Alaska Anchorage, Department of Economics.
    13. Justine Briaux & Yves Martin-Prevel & Sophie Carles & Sandra Fortin & Yves Kameli & L. Adubra & A. Renk & Y. Agboka & M. Romedenne & F. Mukantambara & J. van Dyck & J. Boko & Renaud Becquet & M. Savy, 2020. "Evaluation of an unconditional cash transfer program targeting children's first-1,000-days linear growth in rural Togo: A cluster-randomized controlled trial," Post-Print hal-03165338, HAL.
    14. Camila Perera & Shivit Bakrania & Alessandra Ipince & Zahrah Nesbitt‐Ahmed & Oluwaseun Obasola & Dominic Richardson & Jorinde Van de Scheur & Ruichuan Yu, 2022. "Impact of social protection on gender equality in low‐ and middle‐income countries: A systematic review of reviews," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(2), June.
    15. von Haaren, Paula & Klonner, Stefan, 2020. "Maternal cash for better child health? The impacts of India’s IGMSY/PMMVY maternity benefit scheme," Working Papers 0689, University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kuwawenaruwa, August & Ramsey, Kate & Binyaruka, Peter & Baraka, Jitihada & Manzi, Fatuma & Borghi, Josephine, 2019. "Implementation and effectiveness of free health insurance for the poor pregnant women in Tanzania: A mixed methods evaluation," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 225(C), pages 17-25.
    2. Rahman, Mohammad Mahbubur & Pallikadavath, Saseendran, 2018. "How much do conditional cash transfers increase the utilization of maternal and child health care services? New evidence from Janani Suraksha Yojana in India," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 164-183.
    3. Tulasi Malini Maharatha & Sumirtha Gandhi & Umakant Dash, 2021. "Has the Demand and Supply-side Components of Janani Suraksha Yojana Augmented the Uptake of Maternal Health Care Services among Poor Women in India ? : An Application of Hybrid Matching Technique," BASE University Working Papers 08/2021, BASE University, Bengaluru, India.
    4. Aizawa, T.;, 2019. "Reviewing the Existing Evidence of the Conditional Cash Transfer in India through the Partial Identification Approach," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 19/24, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    5. Okeke, Edward N. & Abubakar, Isa S., 2020. "Healthcare at the beginning of life and child survival: Evidence from a cash transfer experiment in Nigeria," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    6. Muhammad Badiuzzaman & Syed Mansoob Murshed, 2016. "Impact of post-conflict development interventions on maternal healthcare utilization," WIDER Working Paper Series 082, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    7. Grépin, Karen A. & Habyarimana, James & Jack, William, 2019. "Cash on delivery: Results of a randomized experiment to promote maternal health care in Kenya," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 15-30.
    8. Somdeep Chatterjee & Prashant Poddar, 2021. "From Safe Motherhood to Cognitive Ability: Exploring Intrahousehold and Intergenerational Spillovers," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 88(352), pages 1075-1106, October.
    9. Muhammad Badiuzzaman & Syed Mansoob Murshed, 2016. "Impact of post-conflict development interventions on maternal healthcare utilization," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2016-82, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    10. Yannick Markhof & Isabela Franciscon & Nicolò Bird & Pedro Arruda, 2021. "Social assistance programmes in South Asia: an evaluation of socio-economic impacts," Research Report 62, International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth.
    11. Chatterjee, Somdeep & Poddar, Prashant, 2019. "Maternal Health, Children Education and Women Empowerment: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from India," GLO Discussion Paper Series 332, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    12. Heinrich, Carolyn J. & Knowles, Matthew T., 2020. "A fine predicament: Conditioning, compliance and consequences in a labeled cash transfer program," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    13. von Haaren, Paula & Klonner, Stefan, 2020. "Maternal cash for better child health? The impacts of India’s IGMSY/PMMVY maternity benefit scheme," Working Papers 0689, University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics.
    14. Fredrick Manang & Chikako Yamauchi, 2015. "The impact of access to health facilities on maternal care use and health status: Evidence from longitudinal data from rural Uganda," GRIPS Discussion Papers 15-19, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies.
    15. Susmita Baulia, 2020. "Cash incentives to mothers or to community health workers - what contributes better to the health of the mother and the newborn? Evidence from India," Discussion Papers 133, Aboa Centre for Economics.
    16. Coffey, Diane, 2014. "Costs and consequences of a cash transfer for hospital births in a rural district of Uttar Pradesh, India," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 89-96.
    17. Lenel, Friederike & Priebe, Jan & Satriawan, Elan & Syamsulhakim, Ekki, 2022. "Can mHealth campaigns improve CCT outcomes? Experimental evidence from sms-nudges in Indonesia," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    18. Sandra García & Juan Saavedra, 2017. "Educational Impacts and Cost-Effectiveness of Conditional Cash Transfer Programs in Developing Countries: A Meta-Analysis," NBER Working Papers 23594, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Independent Evaluation Group, 2014. "Social Safety Nets and Gender : Learning from Impact Evaluations and World Bank Projects," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 21365, December.
    20. Sayedur Rahman & Aziz Ahmed Choudhury & Rasheda Khanam & Syed Mamun Ibne Moin & Salahuddin Ahmed & Nazma Begum & Nurun Naher Shoma & Md Abdul Quaiyum & Abdullah H Baqui & for the Projahnmo Study Group, 2017. "Effect of a package of integrated demand- and supply-side interventions on facility delivery rates in rural Bangladesh: Implications for large-scale programs," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(10), pages 1-13, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0173068. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.