Conclusion

During the inauguration of a Protestant medical center in 2010 in Burkina Faso, then prime minister Tertius Zongo emphasized the importance of having private and religious health providers continuing to provide quality healthcare alongside the efforts of the state. At a time when the international community is finalizing work toward the post-2015 sustainable development goals, the contribution of faith-inspired service providers is crucial. For faith-inspired providers to work alongside the state in the delivery of services, and possibly benefit from state support, basic information is required on their market share, their reach to the poor, their cost for households and funding sources, the satisfaction of their users with the services received, and the reasons why individuals choose to rely on faith-inspired services. Yet today it is striking how limited the empirical evidence on the role of faith-inspired providers in sub-Saharan Africa remains. Just as one example, while it is often stated at the highest levels that faith-inspired providers run half of all healthcare and education services in the region, household surveys suggest an average market share of about 10 percent. The primary purpose of this book was to build a stronger evidence base on those questions for Ghana and Burkina Faso, and also for sub-Saharan Africa more generally.