Impact evaluations
The use of peer referral incentives to increase demand for voluntary medical male circumcision in Zambia
3ie Impact Evaluation Report 52, 2016
Arianna Zanolini, Carolyn Bolton, Lane-Lee Lyabola, Gabriel Phiri, Alick Samona, Albert Kaonga and Harsha Thirumurthy
This study evaluates the effectiveness of a pilot intervention conducted in Zambia that provided small financial incentives to circumcision clients who successfully referred their peers to also seek circumcision. Though the peer referral incentive for male circumcision was feasible and acceptable, the intervention did not have a significant effect on demand for male circumcision. However, circumcision clients reported that the referral incentive motivated them to encourage their friends to seek male circumcision. There is need for further efforts to encourage male-to-male communication and evaluations with larger sample sizes.