23rd ALNAP Meeting - Meeting Report: A new agenda for news media and humanitarian aid

The 23rd ALNAP Biannual, held in Madrid in June 2008, was a remarkable and memorable
event. Our aim was to reflect on the key issues that shape the complex relationships between
key actors and players in the news media and the humanitarian sectors and to collectively frame a new agenda for the future.

The wealth of experience assembled was impressive and I found myself rubbing shoulders with operational programme managers, humanitarian evaluators, accountability specialists, directors of aid agencies, heads of foreign news desks, veteran journalists and even princesses and former presidents. I think that everyone present was able to appreciate the convening power of the ALNAP network, in bringing together such a diverse group of stakeholders This event allowed some of the most recent experiences in the aid world to be discussed, including the Tsunami, the Niger food crisis, and Myanmar. A recurring theme was the potential for new technologies and user-generated content to change the information dynamics around humanitarian crises and response. Discussions focused on the complex web at the heart of the media-humanitarian interactions, raising key issues around competition, accountability, performance and transparency. The contributions were honest, forthright and frequently challenging.