This document summarizes the partnership between the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and Delahaye Medialink to provide a daily news digest evaluation service. The service monitors international news coverage of WFP and provides timely alerts about misreporting or factual inaccuracies. It has evolved over 12 months to now serve as both a real-time monitoring tool and historical reporting tool. The partnership helps WFP improve media coverage and address issues proactively.

1. World Food Programme
This case study shows how the United Nations Word Food Programme’s
(WFP) need for a real-time international news service and evaluation
programme was met by Delahaye Medialink’s news digest service.
It explains how this ‘Daily News Digest evaluation news service’ has evolved
over the last twelve months and how it is not only helping the WFP to
measure the content and efficacy of media coverage, but now it is also serving
as an early alert system to address mis-reporting, mis-representation and
poor interpretation of the facts surrounding the reporting of the work done
in highly sensitive situations throughout the world. (Haiti, North Korea,
INDEX Darfur/Sudan).
Work of the WFP 1
Set-up in 1963, WFP is the United Nations frontline agency in the fight
against global hunger. In 2003, WFP fed 104 million people in 81 countries,
Who the WFP helps 2
including most of the world's refugees and internally displaced people.
WFP Challenge 3 Scheduled to go into operation in 1963 as a three-year experimental
programme, WFP was up and running before it could walk. An earthquake
A Fresh Approach 4 hit Iran in September 1962, followed by a hurricane in Thailand in October.
Correcting Press 5 Newly independent Algeria was resettling 5 million refugees. Food aid was
Reports urgently needed and WFP supplied it. It has never stopped.
Taking Evaluation 6 Since 1996, WFP has been governed by the WFP Executive Board, which
To Present consists of 36 Member States. The Executive Director, appointed jointly by
the UN Secretary General and the Director-General of the FAO for fixed
More Content, 7 five-year terms, sits at the head of the Secretariat of WFP.
Stronger Relation-
ships
Special points of
WFP Mission
interest:
• Stop ‘mis-
As the food aid arm of the UN, WFP uses its food to:
reporting’
• Stop ‘factual inac- • Meet emergency needs
curacies’
• Stop ‘incorrect sto- • Support economic & social development
ries’
• Global news • The Agency also provides the logistics support necessary to get
evaluation service food aid to the right people at the right time and in the right
place.
• Partner approach
to a world beating
• The WFP works to put hunger at the centre of the international
organisation
agenda, promoting policies, strategies and operations that directly
benefits the poor and hungry.

2. Who does the WFP help? Page 2
• Victims of natural disasters like the Mozambique floods in
2000 or Hurricane Mitch, which affected one million people in
Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatamala in October
1998
• Displaced People - both refugees and internally displaced
persons that are forced to leave towns and villages in places
like Kosovo and Sierra Leone.
• The world’s hungry poor, trapped in a twilight zone between
poverty and malnutrition
• WFP also believes that women are the first solution to
hunger and poverty. Women not only cook food. They sow,
reap and harvest it. Yet, in many developing countries, they eat
last and least.
How does the WFP fight hunger?
WFP is the world’s largest international food aid organization
combating hunger in underdeveloped nations with severe food
shortages. The frontline stretches from sub-Saharan Africa and
the Middle East to Latin America and Asia & the Pacific.
Rescue: WFP stands on a permanent state of alert, ready to mobilise
food aid for delivery to natural and man-made disaster areas.
Rapid Reaction: WFP’s rapid response team draws-up contingency
plans designed to move food and humanitarian aid fast into disaster
areas. The WFP works closely with the other members of the UN
family, governments and NGOs, offering its logistics expertise to
guarantee the delivery of all kinds of humanitarian aid.
Rehabilitation: WFP food aid also serves as a means to get disaster-
affected regions back on their feet.
Deterrence: Malnutrition gnaws away at the most valuable asset in any
country’s development: its children and its workers. Food aid is one of
the most effective deterrents against long-term poverty.
Development: The WFP kick-starts development by paying workers
with rations to build vital infrastructure, and in offering children food aid
as a reward for going to school.

3. The WFP Challenge Page 3
The WFP wanted a reliable and useful media intelligence and evaluation
tool that provided a comprehensive service covering all WFP mentions
across all principal national newspapers in a number of core donor coun-
tries.
International consultants (Deloitte & Touche) assessed the impact of the
WFP’s press and media operations internationally and reported that the
organization was making a strong impact upon the world’s media.
What the WFP now required was a reliable system to measure that im-
pact. This was particularly true in donor countries, where the media plays
such a significant part in shaping the size and use of the overseas aid
budget at a political level.
The WFP tried several suppliers prior to coming to Delahaye and had
been unhappy with the quality of service received. So, in the summer of Countries included:
2003, the WFP signed an agreement with Delahaye to take its web based
Daily News Digest service covering news stories about the WFP that ap- UK
peared in international ‘top-line’ major papers that covered 13 of its ma- France
jor donor countries. USA
Finland
Denmark
The Delahaye solution Sweden
Norway
Germany
• Track WFP Press Releases and Spokespersons that had been cited in Netherlands
these releases. (See Figures 2 & 3 attached for full lists and examples) Italy
• Capture all WFP coverage across the defined media in all major donor Australia
countries Canada
• Deliver a daily news service to all regional WFP communication offices Japan
(around 35 worldwide)
• All foreign language content summarised and translated into English
• Each story has an interactive link back to the original news source – or
it would have a full text copy of the same story “If the WFP was to have
• All available to WFP executives around the world using a web based a meaningful evaluation
delivery tool tool that helped its daily
• Content is searched and updated twice daily
decision making, we had
• All content on the web site is categorised and searchable by
- Key Words to design it so that it
- Media Type offers both real-time
- Reporter needs and with classic
- Spokesperson ‘historical drill-down
- Press release
reporting tools to the
- Dominant issues/messages
- Stakeholder groupings client.’
- By country Norman Clements
- Specialist comment
Managing Director
Delahaye Europe

4. Early Stages of the Project Page 4
A new team took control at WFP in acy of the service, so that it could
Rome – run by communications become a tool that could assist
experts Neil Gallagher and Brenda them in day-to-day decision making.
Barton. They wanted more news
coverage of a greater number of In early 2004, the WFP appointed a
news titles and more immediacy. new Scandanavian WFP chief. His
Last February, they authorized an team would capture clips from the
extension of the reading list covering region (Norway, Sweden, Denmark
major publications from all donor and Finland) and would provide the
countries and a fresh country was information for the main quarterly
added (Ireland). reports only. To compensate for
the loss of these countries on a
These changes were driven by daily basis, Ireland was introduced
internal WFP demand as more staff to the survey and the current set of
signed up to the Daily News Digest publication across the remaining
system. With more demand came countries was thrown wide open to
requests for wider coverage. The better reflect the realities of press
new WFP team were also curious coverage of the WFP global com-
about ways to improve the immedi- munications work.
A Fresh Approach
As part of this new agreement, outside standard European work- WFP Chief Public
reached between Delahaye and the ing hours and organise an emer- Affairs officer, Brenda
WFP in February 2004, Delahaye gency email alert system that sends Barton commented:
agreed to shift focus of its service ‘warning’ of breaking news to key
from simple reporting of news to far WFP staff – so that when they ar- “We have found the
more pro-active support of the day- rive at their desks the next day service extremely helpful
to-day work of the WFP. they have a clear indication of the
at all levels. We are able
WFP-related stories that are mak-
The new focus was on the develop- ing the news. to measure where we
ment of a international multi-country stand in terms of our
news ‘radar’ system that could alert Delahaye also sought to work on work on a global scale.
the WFP to breaking news that could ways of assisting key WFP commu- We also have a team at
have a major impact upon its busi- nication staff to track, monitor and
Delahaye that actively
ness. This meant that although Dela- assist in helping the WFP to
haye was to plan for the eventual ‘protect the brand’ from press mis- supports us whenever we
‘switching on’ of deep media evalua- takes and misreporting that gave a need to act fast to correct
tion in mid 2004, it was also to seek wrong impression of the WFP and media inaccuracies.”
ways to monitor stories breaking its works around the globe.
Tracking Media Errors
A plane was downed recently in the discovered whether this story ap-
Aruba Mountains of Sudan. It was peared anywhere else. In fact, no
feared that WFP staff were on board. WFP staff were involved and as the
This story came from a Khartoum- story broke on Italian websites De-
based stringer’s report to that effect lahaye fed the information back to
which was transmitted through the WFP – who ensured that the
ANSA. Delahaye’s DND system information was corrected and re-
picked up this story and quickly tractions issued where required.

5. Press reports of 2 WFP staff killed in Sudan
Page 5
The Daily News Digest picked up press mentions of this story – relayed this
to WFP communications staff in Rome – who confirmed the inaccuracy of
the story and dealt with it accordingly. This was done by getting the main
German newswire – Deutsche Press Agentur to issue a public retraction.
Reports of US Government aid cuts of 20%
Reuters had reported that the U.S. government was cutting the WFP’s aid
budget for 2004 by 20%. However these numbers were merely early esti-
mates and revised upwards as circumstances unfolded during the year. De-
lahaye tracked the story globally and supplied copy to WFP to enable them
to correct the story wherever it appeared. It only gained exposure in
Reuters, Australia and Canada – and the mis-reporting was stopped.
Reporting on news coverage of regional disasters
As the lead UN Agency into Ryongchon in North Korea after the train dis-
aster in April, WFP Regional Director, Tony Banbury, saw his comments
syndicated globally in a matter of just a few days. Inside just 6 days, the
World Food Programme news digest site carried over 600 mentions on
how the WFP was leading the UN effort to help the victims of this tragedy.
The Daily News Digest website remained up-to-date throughout, publishing
the news from across the tracked countries – making it available to WFP
staff each morning.
Tracking the Overthrow of President Aristide in Haiti
As the crisis broke the WFP was a prominent source of news for the
world’s media with comment from Guy Gavreau, WFP Country Director,
capturing a large share of the headlines in February’s crisis. As one of the
lead agencies into the region – the news media closely monitored the
World Food Programme attempts to try to distribute food to 5,000 people
security situation permitting.
Floods and earthquakes devastate Haiti and the
Dominican Republic
In May stricken Haiti was hit once more by torrential rains that led to flood-
ing. The media reported the WFP lead role in delivering food and water to
remote farming towns (such as Mapou) where reporters saw for the first
time the worst devastation from deadly floods that inundated parts of Haiti
and the Dominican Republic and left Mapou under 10 feet of water.
On-going humanitarian disaster in Darfur
Western Sudan
With initial unconfirmed reports of mass exodus and ethnic cleansing in the
Darfur region - the head of the World Food Programme, James T Morris,
led a major UN delegation to the country that saw that the worst had in-
deed happened. After visiting Darfur he said: "What we are witnessing in
Darfur and in Chad is a dramatic humanitarian crisis, no doubt one of the
worst in the world today, a crisis of massive displacement, critical humani-
tarian needs and extreme levels of violence and fear."

6. Taking Media Evaluation into the Page 6
present
Media evaluation has traditionally been about reporting and analysing issues “Having a reliable
after the event – with traditional reports landing on client desks two to service in place has
three ‘working’ weeks after the Quarter reported on has closed. The re- helped us enormously on
port has depended upon the provision of clips to the media evaluation com-
a day-to-day basis. It
pany by either the client of the PR agency. In many instances, this has been
the major ‘anchor’ preventing reporting on a communications cycle being has saved us man hours
closer to the end of the period under scrutiny. Media evaluation agencies and effort and aided us in
now have the ability to operate in real-time across a 24 x 7 media world approaching the media
that knows no global boundaries. for successful retractions
or factual corrections.”
Media evaluation is evolving and tools such as the News Digest now play a
role in keeping global communication professionals ‘on message,’ ‘informed’ Francis Mwanza,
and ‘up to date’ – and making day-to-day decisions in real time. This has not Senior Public Affairs
been the traditional territory of the media evaluation company – it has his-
torically belonged to the PR agency. No longer need a media evaluation Officer, WFP
company concentrate on simply measuring the ‘outcomes’ and nothing
more.
Now it can influence the formulation of communication decisions – some-
times to the extent that it can stop news happening (as is the case in this
instance where Delahaye has helped the WFP to quash ‘mis-reporting’ and
‘mis-representation’ in several major news stories about the global aid
agency). This can also now be done on a global rather than a national stage.
A further lesson is that there are no longer any constricting boundaries in
terms of languages or countries. In Delahaye’s case, with offices across the
globe, it is possible to offer a 24 x 7 news digest service that covers up as
many countries as a client desires – all backed by customer service that of-
fers a radar alert support system to clients who operate on the multi-
country, multi-continent scale.

7. The Future - more content, more Page 7
evaluation, more analysis - all in
real time
The WFP will soon move to an uprated and more automated service and
delivery platform. In essence deep evaluation techniques will be available
as and when the news stories are posted.
In this way stories can be compared to the WFP’s values vis. meeting
emergency needs, supporting economic and social development, provide Top Ten Donor Countries
logistic support to get food aid to the right people at the right time in the by Dollars (July 2004)
right place and the important ‘value’ of putting hunger at the centre of the
international agenda.
USA 228 814 358
It will monitor stories so that it becomes possible to track who it is help-
ing through its work – according to the international media in donor coun- Japan 68 598 761
tries.
Tracks will be set up to assess who benefits from WFP work in each story Germany 51 215 755
– victims of natural disasters, displaced people, the world’s poor and hun-
gry trapped in poverty and how the role of women and how they figure in Nether-
40 925 659
relation to such issues. Delahaye already monitors news coverage that lands
reflects news of the work of the WFP in combating hunger in underdevel-
oped nations with severe food shortages. The frontline stretches from Sweden 39 070 664
sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East to Latin America and Asia & the
Pacific. Norway 33 683 834
In the ‘old’ News Digest there is a breakdown by country of news coverage
– and by some core aid agency issues such as: GM crops/food and HIV/Aids. UK 29 376 321
This work will continue on the new version of News Digest. All news
coverage will now include fresh tracked key words in all target languages
Denmark 28 152 157
that capture news stories that explain ‘how’ the WFP achieves its objec-
tives. These ‘positioning messages’ will focus upon reporting on: rescue,
rapid reaction, rehabilitation, deterrence and kick starting economic and Canada 27 336 299
social growth.
Switzer-
18 024 110
Whenever a news story of some significance breaks – WFP team members land
invariably contact Delahaye requesting the re-focusing of the tracking
efforts upon this new story so that it can help them to assess the issue
fully.

8. WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME
Rome HQ
Brenda Barton Mailing Address
Chief Public Affairs Officer Via C.G.Viola 68
tel: +39-06-6513 2602 Parco dei Medici
fax: +39-06-6513 2840 00148 - Rome - Italy
brenda.barton@wfp.org Tel:
+39-06-65131
Francis Mwanza Fax:
Senior Public Affairs Officer +39-06-6513 2840
tel: +39-06-65132623
fmwanza@wfp.org
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