Christian Health Associations (CHAs) – umbrella networks of faith-inspired health providers – have become a solid presence in the collaborative environment of African health systems. Established through sometimes trial-and-error attempts to draw together disparate faith-based health...

Faith-inspired institutions (FIIs) commonly have as their stated mission a desire to provide quality health services to all, and in particular a commitment to serve the poor, for example, by providing services in remote areas where there are none, or by making services more affordable for those...

In recent years, nonprofits have started operating thrift stores to reinvest earnings from the stores’ sales in other programs for the poor. Martha’s Table, a nonprofit in Washington DC, has adopted such a strategy. It operates Martha’s Outfitters, a thrift store which provides clothing at...

The thrift store market in the United States is thriving, driven in part by hard economic times but also by changing perceptions and habits. As a result some nonprofits are considering expanding their thrift store operations, often with the hope that earnings from new or expanded thrift stores...

This paper relies on administrative, household surveys and qualitative data to answer three questions about the services provided by faith-inspired health care providers in Ghana, asking: (1) what is the market share of faith-inspired providers as compared to other types of providers; (2) are...

While thrift stores are associated with the idea of thrift, it does not follow that they attract only clients with limited resources who are highly price sensitive. Today thrift stores are becoming less stigmatized and are attracting middle class clients and the better off as well. This suggests...

Based on the results of qualitative fieldwork conducted in 2010 in Burkina Faso, this paper suggests that a key reason for individuals to seek care in faith-inspired health facilities is the fact that the cost of care is lower than in public facilities (the other reason being that faith-inspired...

This paper provides results from qualitative fieldwork conducted in 2010 in Burkina Faso to understand the factors that lead households to rely on traditional as opposed to modern health providers, and within modern providers, on faith-inspired as opposed to public facilities. While there is an...

Much of the evidence used to-date to back up statements about the market share of faith-inspired providers of health care in sub-Saharan Africa comes from data on health care facilities, and especially on the share of hospital beds held by Christian Health Associations in the countries where...