Box 7 Improving Data on the Role of Faith-Inspired Organizations in Service Delivery in Africa It is often argued that faith-inspired organizations (FIOs) provide a substantial share of education, health and other social services in African countries, and that the services provided by FIOs tend to be better targeted to the poor and possibly more cost effective than is the case for other private service providers and even for public providers. These assertions, if correct, could have implications for policy, since donors (and possibly governments) might then be more inclined to support FIOs in their service delivery activities. It is also important to consider the substantial and growing service delivery partnerships that do exist between governments, donors, and FIOs. In addition, governments might expand their efforts to benefit from the expertise acquired by FIOs in reaching the poor, so that government agencies might learn from FIOs (and vice versa). Unfortunately, good data necessary to document such assertions and hypotheses about the role of FIOs in service delivery are often missing. At least two different types of data can be used to assess the role played by FIOs in service delivery. Administrative data kept by FIOs as well as government agencies could provide information on the market share of FIOs in terms of students served, patients received in health care facilities and the like. In addition, household surveys (as well as other types of surveys dealing with the beneficiaries of social services) may also provide useful data, to the extent that the surveys include questions on the types of service providers used by households and assuming that the users of services know whether the service provider they use is faith-based or not. If household survey data were available to document the role of FIOs, they would have an advantage over administrative data because of the ability to link the uptake of services to many other household and individual characteristics, including the poverty status of the household and the degree of satisfaction of the household with the services received. It is therefore useful to assess to what extent information can be extracted from household surveys on the role of FIOs. Table 1 provides preliminary estimates of the market share of FIOs in the delivery of health and education services in twenty West and Central African countries according to the data available in the main multi-purpose household surveys implemented in the various countries. Two main observations can be made. First, for half of the countries in the case of health, and for one fourth of the countries in the case of education, the survey questionnaires do not include any information on whether the education and health service providers are faith-based or not. Second, when data are available, the market shares of FIOs appear to be low, with the exception of Sierra Leone in the case of Table 1 Preliminary Data on service delivery by faith-inspireded organizations in African household surveys Identification of FIOs in survey questionnaire Country and household survey Benin (QUIBB 2003) Preliminary estimate of market share of FIOs Education Health Yes No Education <5% Health NA Burkina Faso (QUIBB 2003) Yes No 5%–10% NA Burundi (QUIBB 2006) Yes Yes <5% 10%–20% Cameroon (ECAM 2007) Yes Yes 10%–20% <5% Cape Verde (CWIQ 2007) No No <5% NA Chad (ECOSIT2 2003/04) No Yes NA 10%–20% Cote d’Ivoire (ENV 2002) No No NA NA DRC (Enquête 1–2–3 2004/05) No No NA NA Gabon (CWIQ 2005) Yes No 5%–10% NA Ghana (GLSS 2005/2006) Yes Yes 5%–10% 5–10% Guinea (ELEP 2007) Yes No <5% NA Liberia (CWIQ 2007) Yes No <5% NA Mali (CWIQ 2006) Yes Yes <5% 5%–10% Niger (ENBC 2007) Yes Yes <5% <5% Nigeria (LMS 2003/2004) Yes Yes <5% <5% ROC (ECOM–CWIQ 2005) Yes Yes <5% <5% Rwanda (EICV 1997/1998) No No NA NA Senegal (ESPS 2005) Yes Yes 5%–10% <5% Sierra Leone (QUIBB 2003) Yes Yes >50% <5% Togo (QUIBB 2006) Yes No 5%–10% NA Source: Wodon et al. (2008). NA means not applicable. (continued on next page) Technical Notes 163