1. The UN’s Inter-Agency Standing Committee Working Group met in New York on 14 & 15 September. The IASC is one of the main interagency forum for the UN system It consists of the highest ranking staff from the UN operational agencies: WFP, UNCHR, UNICEF, etc. NGO networks are also represented on the IASC including the SCHR, ICVA and InterAction. The IASC meets twice a year. The IASC has a working group that does much of the preparation for the IASC. It meets about five times a year and in September’s meeting made the following statements about Sphere:
- “Endorsed the book as an important tool for anyone working with populations affected by disaster. It will be particularly useful for those working for international and national humanitarian organizations;
- “Called on all IASC members to promote the use of the Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response within their organizations, particularly in their field operations.”
This is an important milestone in the Sphere process, in particular with respect to UN agencies that work with NGOs in disaster response.
2. Training programme update:
The Training Programme has spent the summer reflecting
on what has worked and what hasn’t. An evaluation questionnaire was submitted
to over 400 participants of Sphere training workshops with over 50 responses.
While the complete analysis wasn't available for this newsletter, preliminary
results indicate that the workshops are successful in facilitating people in
using the Sphere handbook in their daily work.
Substantial modifications to the training materials are underway, based on the feedback from our first year of workshops and training of trainers activities. A new module on the project cycle is being drafted, including monitoring and evaluation and analysis of the context of humanitarian work. The Humanitarian Charter training module is also being re-written, emphasizing principles and core humanitarian values. Minor modifications are also being done to the first introductory module to give more examples of the application of Sphere in the field, and to the Disaster Preparedness module to make it easier to use this module in cross-cultural settings.
A major interagency workshop occurred in London on 19 September for senior operational managers of humanitarian programming in the UK DEC agencies. (DEC - Disasters Emergencies Committee) One main output was a sharing of techniques and strategies to overcome organisational learning blockages.
3. Upcoming workshops:
October 19 in Luxembourg hosted by Caritas. It
will be in French, one day long, free of charge, there are places available,
and the contact is michael.feit@handitel.lu
November 29, 30 and December 1 in Dakar, Senegal
hosted by the Oxfam regional office in Dakar. Contact Francoise Mompoint
fmompoint@oxfam.org.sn
Second week of January in Daka, Bangladesh hosted
by CARE.
First week of February in Indonesia hosted by SCF-Alliance
(tbc).
The next Training of Trainers workshop will occur
in April in Geneva. For more details see the website.
4. Piloting Update
Eighteen NGOs worldwide have been piloting the
implementation of the Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards over the past
year. The Sphere Implementation staff are collating lessons learned from this
period and will be publishing a paper on the website in November. There has
been strong demand from NGOs for ideas and experiences on how to apply Sphere
in practice. We hope that this paper will help fill that gap.
The paper provides a great variety of experiences
from the pilot agencies working in Africa, Asia, Central America and Europe.
Examples include using Sphere around the project cycle, in advocacy for the
rights of
disaster-affected populations and in inter-agency
coordination. The paper shows that there is a growing use of the Humanitarian
Charter and Minimum Standards around the world, but that it has been largely
ad hoc to
date. The challenge for NGOs in the future will
be to begin to systemize and consolidate the use of Sphere and the Code of Conduct
to promote a coherent response to disasters.
5. Discussion with French NGOs
Sphere participated in a press conference in August
for the launch of the ETIKUMA European Symposium on Humanitarian Ethics, sponsored
by Bioforce and the University of Paris Sorbonne. Discussions on the meaning
and application of the handbook were held and many of the concerns of some of
the French NGO community were addressed. (The project office is preparing a
detailed Question and Answer piece that addresses areas such as definitions,
institutionalization, misuse, universality, application, etc. The Q & A
will be available on the website or directly from the office.)
6. Some interesting work on
principles, standards and international law can be found in the following:
- Forced Migration Review issue on accountability
(www.fmreview.org/FMRpdfs/FMR08/fmr8contents.pdf)
- Development in Practice, Volume 10, No 3&4
August 2000, Hugo Slim,
"Dissolving the difference between humanitarianism
and development: the mixing of a rights-based solution"
7. Guest column:
Since the publication of the Sphere handbook we
have received many helpful and diverse comments from a range of organisations.
It is our intent to share these perspectives and to further our intention of
having Sphere act as a catalyst for discussions about improved quality and accountability
in disaster response. Following Newsletter #5's guest column by MSF-H’s Evaluation
Department is a response from CARE's East Africa office.
(The articles that appear represent the positions
of their authors and do not necessarily represent the position of the Sphere
Management Committee or the staff.)
The aim of this newsletter is to inform people
about the work of the project and to encourage discussion related to the use
of and implications of the Humanitarian Charter and the Minimum Standards and
Key Indicators.
We are actively seeking 1000-2000 word articles
on the concept, practice and issues related to quality and accountability for
future editions of this newsletter. If you would like to submit an article,
please contact the Project office in Geneva at 41-22-730-4501 or sphere@ifrc.org.