The effects of in-kind demand-side conditional transfers for improving uptake of maternal and child health services in Rwanda

To diagnose and treat preventable threats to maternal and neonatal health in Sub-Saharan Africa, a policy focus has been put on increasing coverage rates of targeted health services. Exploiting an experimental design, this study evaluates the impacts of an in-kind conditional transfer intervention in Rwanda that endowed women with gifts for receiving timely antenatal and postnatal care, as well as for delivering in health facilities. The analysis finds that although health centers experienced frequent stock outs of the gifts, the rate of women who initiated antenatal care within the first four months of their pregnancy increased by 7.7 percent, and that of women who received postnatal care in the 10 days following delivery increased by 8.6 percent. No impact was found on the rate of in-facility deliveries, which independently sharply increased during the years of the implementation of the program.