High levels of infant and child mortality and preference for sons means that women delay sterilisation.

BBC: Is India's population policy sexist?

According to Unicef, nine years of economic warfare against Iraq has seen a doubling of child- and infant-mortality rates.

ECONOMIST: Letters

"While conditions in Somalia have improved in recent months, the country still has one of the highest rates of child malnutrition and infant mortality in the world, " Ben Foot, from the charity Save the Children, said in a statement.

BBC: Somalia famine 'killed 260,000 people'