New Incentives

Organisation

New Incentives is a nonprofit organization operating in Nigeria since 2011. Its focus is on increasing vaccination rates among infants in extremely poor regions by offering financial incentives to families who vaccinate their children. Since 2017, New Incentives has focused exclusively on the All Babies Are Equal (ABAe) program, which provides conditional cash transfers to parents and caregivers when their children receive the recommended vaccinations.

The organization works in close partnership with public health facilities and local health authorities. Its approach is grounded in evidence-based research and has been independently evaluated, including by GiveWell, as highly effective.

The Problem: Low Vaccination Rates

Vaccines are among the most effective and cost-efficient health interventions globally. Yet in many parts of Nigeria, countless children lack access to essential vaccines against diseases such as tuberculosis, polio, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, measles, and pneumococcal infections. According to WHO data, around 2.2 million Nigerian children under one year of age were unvaccinated in 2022 ("zero-dose children")—the highest number worldwide.

Unvaccinated children face significantly higher risks of severe illness and death. Low vaccination coverage also puts a heavy strain on public health systems and leads to avoidable economic costs due to disease outbreaks and lost productivity.

Approach

New Incentives combines educational outreach on immunization with financial incentives to significantly boost vaccination rates. Families receive small cash transfers for each vaccine administered to a child under 12 months old. The transfer amounts are designed to motivate without creating excessive distortion.

The program operates within existing public health systems: vaccines are administered in government clinics, while New Incentives manages registration, verification, and transfer distribution. Continuous monitoring and independent audits ensure program quality and integrity.

Impact

A randomized controlled trial (RCT) conducted by Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) found that the ABAe program increased full immunization coverage by 27 percentage points in target areas. Additional analyses suggest a cost per life saved in the range of $3,000 to $5,000—an exceptionally cost-effective outcome by global standards.

By 2024, New Incentives had supported over 2 million children and significantly improved vaccination coverage in underserved regions.

Transparency

New Incentives follows a highly data-driven and transparent approach. It regularly publishes monitoring data, independent evaluation reports, and detailed cost information. The organization is consistently recommended by GiveWell as one of the most effective charities for health-focused interventions.

Current Projects

Nigeria (2025): New Incentives is expanding its ABAe program to additional states in northwest and northeast Nigeria. The goal is to reach over 3 million children by the end of 2025 and increase routine immunization coverage in underserved areas by an additional 20–30 percentage points.