Willingness to Pay for Nutrition Counseling Services in Vietnam

Abstract

Alive & Thrive Viet Nam, a six year initiative (2009‐2014), has developed and incorporated social franchising in government health services to provide high quality nutrition counseling services (NCS) to improve infant and young child feeding practices. One element of franchising not yet implemented widely is fee for service to address cost recovery for the model. In the long run, the sustainability and feasibility for replication and expansion of the model could rely on clients' willingness to pay (WTP) for the service. This research aims to estimate the client's WTP for the NCS and to examine the potential associated factors with their WTP, using data from 2,511 women with a child <2y old from 4 provinces in Vietnam. An iterative bidding technique was employed to explore individual WTP. The first bid was defined as 20,000 VND (~ 1 USD) which was about the level of the actual service cost. Depending on the responses of “yes” or “no”, the bid increased or decreased, respectively. Finally, the respondents were asked about the highest price they would be willing to pay. Overall, 92.6% of clients reported a need for NCS. The WTP rates at the bid of VND 5,000, 10,000, 20,000, 40,000 and 100,000 were 95.2%, 94.4%, 90.7%, 68.9% and 33.4%, respectively. The mean and median of the maximum WTP were 58,500 and 50,000 VND, respectively. In multiple regression models, WTP rates and WTP amounts were lower among worse‐off wealth index quintiles and farmers. No differences on WTP were found for ethnicity or place of residence. In conclusion, there is a high demand for nutrition counseling services and there is a WTP by almost all segments of society for these services which would potentially cover cost of delivery.Funding: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, through Alive & Thrive, managed by FHI360