Despite a major theme of the post-2015 consultations being the need to better integrate environmental and development targets, the largest aid groups rarely mention the significant barriers to pursuing these quite different goals simultaneously.

From my work in Nepal I can see the difference women can make in leadership positions. Their contribution should be reflected in the framework for the future of international development.

Last week, I was one of 28 scientists, and a handful of social scientists, invited by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs to discuss science and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), successors to the Millennium Development Goals.

It's hard for us to imagine life without the humble loo. It's a basic necessity; a UN-recognised human right. However, for an overwhelming two thirds of the population in South Asia, a loo is a luxury that's out of reach.

International Women's Day is a chance to recognise the commonalities in women's experiences that exist across the world. It should also remind us that the international community can play a part in encouraging states to implement measures that promote women's empowerment.

I was actually at the launch of the Commission for Africa in May 2005. While the Commission made a big show about having African input into the consultations, I couldn't help but notice that the Ethiopian I was sat next to was one of the few Africans in the audience. Everyone else seemed much of a piece: officials from BINGOs (Big NGOs), western journalists, a few civil servants, and Labour Party workers.

Let's be honest. Burma isn't the first country that comes to mind when one talks about open government. Yet despite its ongoing challenges, Burma has made huge strides towards reform and openness in the past few years.

This week Comic Relief celebrated its 25th anniversary and as we look back over the years, there is a lot to be proud of. For the past quarter of a century, Comic Relief has inspired people up and down the country to play a part in changing the lives of millions of people across Africa for the better.

One of the big oversights of the Millennium Development Goals was that it did not create an expectation that monitoring and data should cover all ages, with the result that statistics for issues such as HIV or violence stop at age 49 and we know practically nothing about older people living with the infection.

A child's right to protection is everything - and the Millennium Development Goals, agreed at the turn of the century with ambitious development targets for 2015, have achieved much we should be proud of.

This week, David Cameron sets off to Liberia's capital, Monrovia, for influential UN talks on what should replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) when they expire in 2015. The cynics would say this is another talking shop, an opportunity for the great and the good to come together and pontificate on poverty. I am not one of them.

It is high time we consigned the disturbing numbers of people who are malnourished to yesteryear and instead looked forward toward a brighter future where these problems are defeated thanks to effective, and relentless, public-private partnerships (PPPs).

As a veteran, I have learned that Davos is a kitchen out of which, given time, dishes come that do make the main menu.

An opportunity exists in the next two years to build on one of the most successful development projects, not to mention political projects, of all time: the Millennium Development Goals.

What became clear in Four Born Every Second was that countries need to find their own solutions to maternal and child health and that aid will not be enough to sustainably eradicate poverty and ill health.

It was clear from the 250 people who attended the panel's outreach meeting on Friday afternoon that we are indeed a diverse bunch. And rightly so - we are meant to be 'civil society', and if our claims to represent the more than one billion who live in poverty are to be taken seriously, we need to represent that range of complex inter-related needs.

Successes and shortcomings of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are taking centre-stage in London this week.