The Netherlands has earmarked an extra €125m to improve healthcare in developing countries, prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende announced at a meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative in New York on Wednesday.

Aid minister Bert Koenders has made women’s rights a priority in his policy approach and the extra cash will primarily be used to combat violence against women and improvements in mother and child healthcare, says ANP news service.
Balkenende told the meeting that one woman dies somewhere in the world every minute as the result of childbirth complications.