Why sphere project

Twitter Facebook Flickr Youtube. The Sphere Project. Affiliation or Individual:. City, Country: Geneva, Switzerland. By defining minimum standards, the initiative strives to enhance the quality and accountability of humanitarian assistance.

It also coincides with intensified discussions on professionalising the humanitarian sector. This article outlines the major changes in the edition of the Handbook and offers a few reflections on the challenges that lie ahead. The Sphere Project has come a long way over the past 15 years, establishing itself as a force for convergence and collaboration within the humanitarian community.

Over time, it earned recognition within the broader humanitarian sector. Several countries, including India and Guatemala, base their national disaster management guidelines at least in part on the Sphere indicators. This is due largely to the successful advocacy work by Sphere focal points.

Worldwide consultations collected input from over individuals working for some organisations in more than 20 countries. Current issues within the humanitarian sector were discussed and, contingent on consensus and established best practice, taken on board.

The updated Sphere Handbook therefore represents current best practice in humanitarian response. All the chapters are compatible with other relevant sets of guidelines and humanitarian structures, and refer in particular to the Humanitarian Cluster system, inter-agency networks and UN agencies. These three sections set out the ethical, moral and legal principles upon which Sphere is built.

The technical chapters refer to them at all times, and should be read in conjunction with them. The Humanitarian Charter, the cornerstone of the Sphere Handbook, was completely rewritten to make it more accessible and intelligible. It is also more explicitly linked with the rest of the Handbook, in particular the Protection Principles and Core Standards.

The Charter is based on three common principles: the right to life with dignity, the right to receive humanitarian assistance and the right to protection and security.

Four Protection Principles, applicable to all facets of humanitarian activity, have been added to the Handbook. They reflect the dual nature of protection in the humanitarian sector: on the one hand, protection is a mindset and approach pertaining to all humanitarian response activities; on the other, protection is a specific activity, for which there are now specific protection standards developed by ICRC.

Accordingly, Principles 1 and 2 do no harm and access to impartial assistance are very broad and will apply to all humanitarian agencies. Principles 3 and 4 protection from physical and psychological harm and the provision of assistance with rights claims and access to remedies and recovery from abuse may require protection-specific actions.

Agencies not engaged in such activities should still be aware of these principles and integrate them into their advocacy work where possible.

More specific sets of standards should be based on the four Protection Principles. In the Core Standards, the Sphere Handbook expresses the conviction that humanitarian response should support the capacity of people affected by disaster or conflict. It recognises the need to build humanitarian response on local coping and self-help mechanisms whenever possible. This includes working with local and national authorities.

Coordination with a variety of actors and the importance of understanding local contexts including conflict sensitivity are also referred to. The importance of addressing psychosocial needs is reflected in the Protection Principles and Core Standards, and in one standard of the Health Action chapter.

Disaster risk reduction and early recovery are mainstreamed, reflecting concern about changing risk patterns due to environmental degradation and climate change. The standards will be finalised by April with a first draft due in two months. For these standards to have any relevance and potential future application, it is vital that the experience and thinking of those who have worked in emergencies is harnessed. To this end, I'm putting an e-mail correspondence list together, so that people can comment on drafts or suggest good case-study material to highlight best practice.

If you would like to be involved, then please get in touch with me and I'll add you to the list an alternative to e-mails links can be the fax. For anyone interested in the standards in food security, please contact the Sector Manager, Harlan Hale:.

Tel: 1 Fax: , E-mail: hvhale mindspring. Tel: 44 Fax: E-mail: l. In July , the Sphere Project was launched by a group of humanitarian agencies. This project sought to develop a set of universal minimum standards in core areas of The Sphere Project celebrated its 10th anniversary in To mark the occasion, a special report has been published, '10 years of Sphere in Action, enhancing the quality and In recent years the nature of emergencies have changed so that the vast majority of humanitarian crises are now acknowledged to be conflict related.

These emergencies are often The Feinstein International Famine Centre at Tufts University is holding a two week intensive course for humanitarian program managers focusing on nutrition, public health and Emergency Nutrition Manager Surge Team Working with the world's poorest people to transform their lives, Concern Worldwide is an international humanitarian organisation Working with the world's poorest people to transform their lives.