Medical assistance from the Netherlands to developing countries is fragmented across at least 157 medical help organisations which are active in 39 countries, mainly in Africa, according to research by medical anthropologist Judith van de Kamp.

Van de Kamp discovered that 61 of the help organisations send out their own doctors, nurses and other medical staff and 96 of them offer financial or material support, reports the Volkskrant on Monday.
She says this fragmentation means help often arrives at the wrong place at the wrong time or that too much help is sent to one location.
Meanwhile, the debate about whether development aid is being used effectively continued at the weekend with development aid minister Bert Koenders telling a meeting in Amsterdam that while he welcomed the discussion, it was too simplistic.
The Labour minister told his audience of political scientists he wanted to make ‘an intelligent justification for the effectiveness of development aid and dispense with simplification and false realities,’ the Volkskrant reported.