Mapping religious health assets: are faith-inspired facilities located in poor areas in Ghana?

The Christian Health Association of Ghana is the largest federation of faith-inspired provider of health services in Ghana. With 168 hospitals and clinics at the time this paper was written, 70 percent of which are affiliated with the Catholic Church, the federation accounts for more than a fourth of all hospital beds in the country according to administrative data from the Ministry of Health. Using poverty mapping techniques and simple regression analysis, this paper aims to answer the following question: Are CHAG facilities located primarily in areas that have a high proportion of Catholics or Christians, or in areas that have a high proportion of the population living in poverty? It appears that the location of CHAG facilities is correlated today more with the share of Catholics living in specific districts than with the level of poverty in those districts