Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what guidance her Department provides to architects and contractors on the construction of health facilities which her Department funds or supports.

Where health facilities are constructed with DFID support, we expect implementing partners to work with architects and the Ministry of Health to ensure that basic quality standards set by local regulatory authorities are met. For example, in our Access to Health Care programme in the Democratic Republic of Congo, our implementing partners developed standard designs with the Ministry of Health and with the technical input of architects. This programme also systematically provides WASH infrastructure at health facilities, including toilets, water cisterns, and incinerators. DFID supports adherence to standards through technical advice and programme implementation, and through investments to strengthen health systems that will increase national and local capacity to improve and monitor the quality of health facilities.