Fund For Peace
The Fund for Peace (FFP) is an independent research and educational nonprofit working to prevent violent conflict and promote sustainable security. Their annual ranking of 177 countries, the Fragile States Index, is published by Foreign Policy magazine and respected by governments worldwide. The FFP relies on Meltwater to help analyze data and create the Index.
Meltwater Enables FFP to
Execute complex searches to acquire rich, dynamic content
Integrate easily with other data sources
Perform ad-hoc analysis and reporting
Challenge
Acquiring and Analyzing Dynamic Data
The FFP team knew they needed dynamic data to track trends and effectively provide early warning of potential conflicts, but lacked the means to capture relevant news from countries around the world in an efficient manner. Compiling their annual Fragile States Index—a document cited by the US State Department when reporting to Congress—meant spending countless hours manually scanning articles and papers to determine which ones merited inclusion. Analyzing trends with an in-house tool was both difficult and time-consuming.
"For early warning, you need really dynamic data and the ability to track trends, and you can't get that from the World Bank, the IMF, the UN, or focus groups," says the FFP Programs Director, Nate Haken.
"We'll receive a request for trends in Baluchistan. This is complex data, so we'll key in our search phrases and do deeper analysis as needed."
Nate Haken, Programs Director FFP
Solution
Targeted Searches Leading to Millions of Resources
After subscribing to Meltwater's global monitoring platform, the FFP quickly uploaded all 8,000-plus Boolean search strings they'd previously created and began systematically scanning an average of 15 million articles per year.
They use Meltwater as a primary research tool, analyzing the data they capture while spotting trends and indicators. The FFP has integrated Meltwater with other data sources, including the World Bank, the UN, and the UN Refugee Agency, and uses both data sets to produce their reports.
Summary
Meltwater Helps FFP
Speed the process of producing vital documents
"We produce an annual assessment called the Fragile States Index, which appears in Foreign Policy magazine.We spend a massive amount of time scanning millions of articles and extracting Excel spreadsheets. We were thrilled to know Meltwater could take our 8000-plus Boolean search strings and upload them into their platform. Meltwater streamlines our research process, saving us valuable time."
Monitor trends and meet the needs of clients in real-time
"One of our clients needed to understand fragility and instability trends and forecast for a specific country.Meltwater makes it easy to pull global, historic data and meet our client?s needs in real-time."
Research dynamic topics globally
"We're probably not using Meltwater in the same way as other clients. We're not using it to track our exposure or to track our competitors.We use it for research and to challenge our own assumptions. Being able to track global media is extremely useful for most organizations, and it's a game changer for us."
— Nate Haken, Programs Director
