Should we provide a guarantee that no child will be brain-damaged in Africa if money can prevent it?, SCN News, 30, Mid-2005, also published as ODIOverseas Development Institute (London) Opinion 49

The SCN was at its best when it provided a vehicle for consensus building among technical experts and a platform for collective advocacy. From that perspective, the best regular product was undoubtedly the World Nutrition Situation Reports, which grew in coverage and authority under the leadership of John Mason; and the best one-off was the James Commission, published in 2000 as ‘Ending Malnutrition by 2020: an Agenda for Change in the Millennium’, which provided policymakers with both a strategic problem statement and a strategic plan. Of course, there were many other fine, technical products, including George Beaton’s meta-evaluation of the impact of vitamin A supplementation, which demonstrated that supplementation in areas affected by xerophthalmia could cut child mortality by nearly a quarter................. (see link in title for full article)