Cirri - Yemen since 2004 not one journalist has covered the north in Sadah and because there is no coverage situation getting worse
Do you have questions for our panel about the messy business of giving aid?
Are we dancing around the issue of WFP aid? Is aid being mismanaged? Question from a Scribble Live watcher to the panel
Richard Dowden refutes the idea that there is any systematic mismanagement going on - WFP are brave to send it - the issue is unrealistic expectations and a lack of openness about the ineviable losses of what it sent in
Qu's from floor - from London Met Uni - The fear of criticism and how are aid agencies gong to confront fear of criticisms?
Q from the floor - what impact has the financial crisis had on money for food aid? And what impact will declining support from the state in developed nations for their own people - and the rising needs of domestic populations - have on support for food aid abroad? Are journalists interested in covering this?
Cirri - we definitely have to accept criticism
Cirri - humanitarian aid is part of the solution and not part of the problem
It's a passionate debate here in London - do send us your thoughts and questions
Ishbel Matheson: Going back to the Band Aid controversy (where it was recently reported that food aid was diverted to rebels) - we're in danger of losing the big picture - the vast majority of aid in Ethiopia in 1984 saved lives
@james Very engaging and heated discussion going on
Ishbel Matheson: there is an increasingly hostile atmosphere around aid these days, good stories about aid are more diffcult to place in the media.
@james - there's lots of engagement from the audience on the issues being discussed and the panelists are debating some really important issues
question from the floor for Giancarlo Cirri, what is being done in your systems, areas of operation to make sure food is getting to people?
from the audience - why does the media focus on what aid didn't get there, rather on what did?
@bob, etiopia Hi Bob, no they weren't but not because they're not important. We are talking about how hunger is treated in the Western media, in the developed world.
From the audience - it's not just a question of sending food, it's also about what food is sent - MSF has a new campaign saying that much food aid is inadequate, nutritionally, which ties in with what @Backpackfarm has been asking
Greg Barrow raises the point that monitoring food aid can be made more precise, more comprehensive, but of course it's costly. every pound spent on monitoring takes money away from food and delivery costs. We need to bear this in mind in this discussion.
Doucet - why do journalists always report on the negative rather than positive?
@Rachel Zedeck no, he's just saying that creating a perfect system, in which food is watched every single step of the way, would be very very costly.
Richard Dowden has said he has vowed he will cover famines in Africa as if they were happening in the UK
Richard Dowden: Journalists are like doctors - they like to focus on people and countries that are sick - it is imbalanced - that's the dilemma of journalism
@Rachel Zedeck am about to ask the panel that qu for you
Josh from ALNAP - has there been a bit of a conspiracy about the true costs of getting food there and of monitoring and evaluation?
@Rachel Zedeck Please be a little patient with us, lots of questions and discussions going on..so we think your qu's are better suited to either the 3rd of 4th panel..but rest assured we will get to aks them
Giancarlo Cirri - as regards the cost of monitoring, it's a daily trade off for a country director like me. When you running an op but when it's underfunded, you go for maximum deliveries. Donors don't always want to pay for really robust monitoring.
Jonathan Rugman thanks for invite to talk today, says he hopes the result of debate will go back into institution.
Richard Dowden agrees journalism needs to provide a bit more background as well as giving the attention-grabbing headlines. But also calls on agencies to be open, to engage.
Lyse Doucet - this is a tough, tough business we've aired some of the contrvoersies but there is a lot more to discuss, over lunch and later on this afternoon
Coming up this afternoon..
13:45 Who should the hungry turn to? The role of media, the humanitarian community and governments in determining who gets help.
14:45 Intelligent food aid – moving beyond bags of rice and maize.
We're breaking for lunch now but join us later for more discussions, where we'll be putting questions like the nutritional quality of food aid and the need for more sustainable approaches to food and hunger to our panel
