Are People Willing to Pay for Contraceptive? Implications on Policy

Gloria Chepngeno, African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC)
Frederick Mugisha, African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC)

Due to decreased donor support for family planning programs, governments in developing countries are moving away from providing free family planning services. In order to set appropriate prices for contraceptives it is important to know the willngness of people to pay for the service. This paper uses the 1998 KDHS data to explore whether and how much people are willing to pay for contraceptives and the differentials in the amount people would be willing to pay for contraceptive pills. Preliminary results suggest that 57% of the respondents are willing to pay for contraceptive pills. Women who never married, have paid jobs and desire to have more children are willing to pay more for contraceptives pills than their counterparts. Of the women willing to pay, 56% and 84% are willing to pay at least Kshs 25 (US$0.32) and Kshs 10 (US$0.13) per packet respectively.