E-vouchers for Family Planning: Advantages, Challenges, and Trends

Vouchers are a health financing tool in the form of tokens, which are distributed to target populations who exchange them for free or discounted health services at participating clinics. In the context of family planning programs, vouchers are a High Impact Practice Enhancement to expand access to critical health services and improve quality of care. Voucher programs are increasingly transitioning from paper to digital vouchers (called e-vouchers) to improve efficiency, flexibility, and scalability. E-vouchers replace physical tokens such as paper cards with a digital value provided to the user through a smartphone app, a text message, or an electronic card. This brief examines the advantages of e-vouchers, barriers to their use, cost considerations, and future trends. The findings will help family planning program implementers assess the feasibility of using e-vouchers and whether they will add value in meeting programmatic objectives.