Why not, instead of paying mothers to birth at clinics, give the Nevirapine to the traditional birth attendants. Then you won't have to twist arms to get people to change their traditions and you can still prevent the spread of HIV?
Great question. Top three reasons: 1) There are many benefits from delivering newborns in health clinics outside of Nevirapine. 2) It would be much more challenging to reach all of the traditional birth attendants, maintain constant supply of Nevirapine, and monitor proper administration. Moreover, in our case, the cost of the program is the cash transfers and this is a large benefit for program participants. 3) Traditional birth attendants do not consistently test women for HIV when they deliver, because of various reasons (one being it is bad for business to share negative news).