Floods in Pakistan

Church World Service – Pakistan/Afghanistan (CWS-P/A) continues to serve as the Sphere ‘focal point’ in Pakistan. Committed to meeting international humanitarian standards and local requirements, CWS-P/A, also a member of the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership (HAP) International initiative, advocates for the use of Sphere minimum standards in disaster response.

In response to the current flood emergency response in Pakistan, CWS –P/A has initiated a number of activities to strengthen the quality and accountability of the humanitarian assistance delivered. It is presently providing technical assistance and trainings on Sphere’s Minimum Standards in Disaster Response and the HAP Standard in Humanitarian Accountability and Quality Management, to humanitarian organizations operating in Pakistan. CWS has already conducted three orientation sessions on local language and plan to organize ten of them. These workshops aim to introduce and develop a common understanding of quality and accountability issues, at both the national and local level, and to address the challenges of adhering to standards. The first workshops organized already enabled many organizations with no or limited knowledge about Sphere and HAP to acquire the basic knowledge to consider quality and accountability as an aspect of their work.

CWS is also collaborating with Sphere ToT graduates to promote Sphere during the floods emergency response. In the near future, a lessons learned exercise will be held with Sphere ToT graduates to share ways to promote and implement Sphere initiatives more rigorously.

Other steps have consisted in proactively engaging in coordination and cluster meetings. A discussion at a recent meeting with the Pakistan Humanitarian Forum, to which CWS-P/A is a member, led to the Forum deciding to establish a working group for quality and accountability. Quality and accountability was also addressed at the general humanitarian coordination meeting and was positively received.

CWS is also engaged in the production of advocacy and promotional activities with key messages on Q and A. These include T-shirts, posters and banners.

CWS-P/A staff responsible for Sphere are Uma Narayanan ( This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it ), team leader for the Sphere/Hap team and Saima Ali ( This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it ), Sphere focal point. They can be contacted directly for more information about Sphere in Pakistan and especially in relation to the humanitarian response to the floods in the country.

Recent communications from Saima and Uma summarizes the initial efforts taken towards strengthening humanitarian assistance through quality and accountability technical assistance.

More news will be posted when available.

News from Sphere and HAP deployment in Haiti

The activities of Sphere and HAP to improve quality and accountability of the humanitarian response in Haiti are managed by DRSS (Disaster Response Support Services), an initiative of Bioforce and RedR .

We have the pleasure to inform that Ana Urgoiti and Rosario Iraola joined the Sphere deployment in Haiti in June.

Ana Urgoiti undertook a one-month mission from 9th June 2010. Her time was divided between Sphere and DRSS.

The Sphere component of her tasks were two-fold:
1/ To run Sphere training sessions from 10th June.
2/ To set up Sphere capacity development for the Department of Civil Protection (DCO)

Rosario Iraola, is in Haiti as a Sphere trainer/advisor for the DRSS program since 16th June, for 4 months. She can be contacted at the following address: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .

Bioforce and RedR are looking for additional Sphere trainers to replace Ana Urgoiti at the DCO. Individuals interested in working in Haiti (even for a few weeks/months) and who have experience in training on Sphere, are invited to contact Bioforce:

Nina Fasciaux
Institut Bioforce Développement
41 avenue du 8 mai 1945
69694 Vénissieux Cedex France
Tel: +33 (0)4 72 89 31 41
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