Faith-based organizations (FBOs) provide an estimated 30-70 percent of healthcare in Africa. As the global community wrestles with human resources for health (HRH) issues, faith-based organizations (FBOs) are a vital source of health worker production and promising practices. In many countries in Africa, FBOs provide between 30-70% of the health care services. Since FBOs often continue to be grouped with private  or nongovernmental health care providers, they remain under-recognized for their immense contribution to the national health sector, accounting for between 30-80% of nonphysician health worker training in many African countries. FBOs play a critical role in addressing HRH through their long-term commitments to country programs and the extent to which they train health workers and provide direct service delivery in many countries. Therefore, including FBOs in efforts tointegrate promising HRH practices is essential.

A collaborative study between ODI, World Vision and Tearfund in 2009 aimed to generate such evidence. It consisted of a global literature review followed by field studies in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), South Sudan and Kenya - countries selected to provide a range of country, emergency and HIV contexts. A qualitative methodology was used; informants included people affected by the emergency, People Living with HIV (PLHIV) and members of the FBC. This briefing presents key findings and recommendations for the faith community and humanitarian actors. The study focused only on responses within the Christian community.

* Faith-based Communities (FBCs) may be the first port of call for local people during a crisis, and often continue to provide HIV-services

* Humanitarian actors need to help FBCs build up their emergency capacity on HIV services