As of March 2026, this website is no longer being updated. I now work mainly on climate issues, especially in Brighton and Hove, and new work can be found on the website of Climate:Change, our independent think-tank on socially inclusive action in the City: www.climatechangebh.org.uk.
Meanwhile, however, this website has over 850 entries, mostly representing my work on international development from 2010-2025. Among much else, there are over 50 book reviews, more than 20 papers and training cases on bridging research and policy and on managing think-tanks, nearly 100 articles on climate change, and many papers on other topics, including aid, food security and nutrition, and the future of international development. See ‘Topics and Themes’ for more details. I can be reached at sm@simonmaxwell.net.
Should we provide a guarantee that no child will be brain-damaged in Africa if money can prevent it?
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)