Last month the BBC reported from Uzbekistan where reporters were told about a secret policy of forced female sterilisation.

Talking to doctors and women alike, stories emerged of ‘sterilisation quotas’ (up to eight per week), leading to secret sterilisations carried out during caesarean sections without the informed consent of the woman.

Last week a House of Commons enquiry committee called on the government to abandon plans to legislate 0.7 per cent of Gross National Income (GNI) for official development assistance (ODA).

Somalia: the ‘most failed’ of all failed states.

Since 1991, there has been no central government which has managed to control the whole country. In the decades of civil war that have followed, customary, religious and tribal law have dominated, and large parts of the country have reverted to an informal bartering economy. What infrastructure there once was is now weakened, broken or destroyed. Piracy disrupts international trade routes and the influence of al-Shabab, part of al-Qaeda, continues to cause international concern.

In June 2012, the world's leaders will meet in Rio to set the global sustainability agenda for the next decade.