The Sphere Project is supporting, in close collaboration with HAP International, the Nargis cyclone emergency response in Myanmar since early July 2008. Kelly Wooster, Annie LIyod (two Sphere international consultants) and Shabana Bhatti from CWS in Pakistan will be sharing the role of the Sphere support for a period of two months in Myanmar.

Hosting for all three Sphere resource people, as well as two HAP people, is being provided by Save the Children in Myanmar, which is providing management oversight and taking responsibility for insurance and security. CWS (Asia/Pacific, working as part of the ACT Alliance) has generously agreed to cover all staff costs until the end of August 2008.

At its meeting in May 2007, the Sphere Project Board discussed the possible inclusion of additional chapters to the Sphere Project Handbook during the next revision process, scheduled for 2009, in view that sectors such as  education, livestock, livelihoods, early recovery, development-relief linkages have emerged in the last few years as ‘humanitarian sectors’ in disaster response. It was decided however, in order to keep the Handbook practical, to maintain its structure and content as at present. As such the next revised edition will continue to focus mainly on the core ‘life-saving’ sectors, reviewed and updated as necessary: water, sanitation and hygiene promotion; food security, nutrition and food aid; shelter, settlement and non-food items, and health services. Cross-cutting issues – gender, children, older people, disabled people, HIV/AIDS, environment and protection – will continue to inform the guidance notes. The Humanitarian Charter, which sets out the principles underlying the standards in a ‘rights based approach’ will be revised, as will the chapter on standards common to all technical sectors. On the other hand, the Board decided to explore the possibility of adding new ‘Companion’ Standards to the ‘core’ Handbook. This would extend its scope in response to needs that have  recently emerged in the changing humanitarian sector. 

The Sphere Board members continue their commitment to Sphere and their support to building capacities and implementation at the ground. Here is a sample of some of the Sphere Board members activities during the period from November 2007 till April 2008. The activities were collected and categorised around trainings, translations and other activities.

  Browse the activities (HTML format).

See the activities by Country or by Organisation using Google Earth (install it for free).

The SEEP Network, a global association of NGOs active in microenterprise development, is coordinating an initiative to develop Standards for Economic Recovery after Crisis.  The Standards focus on strategies and interventions designed to promote enterprises, employment, and cash flow and asset management among affected businesses and households. These Standards follow the process and format of the Sphere handbook (The Sphere Project Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response), and have been developed with guidance and input from the Sphere Project. 

The draft of these Standards is being launched for a public review for the first time.  We are actively encouraging all stakeholders, particularly those with significant experience implementing economic recovery in emergency environments, to provide commentary and reviews. You can find the Standards available at http://communities.seepnetwork.org/econrecovery; on the “Discussion” page users may post their comments and suggestions for the draft review.  This draft will be available for viewing until the end of July, 2008; the first edition of the Standards will be published in November 2008, with further revisions and consultation to follow.

The overall sales figures provided by Oxfam Publishing and Al Shorouk Publishing for the period of May 2005 – April 2007 show that promotion of Sphere materials, particularly the Handbook in English, French, Spanish and Arabic, has been successful, with a 42% increase in the value of sales between 2005-6 and 2006-7.

Sales of all Sphere available materials (handbook, DVD, training pack) in 6 languages: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic and Russian) in GBP were:

You can watch here our Sphere Video, an introduction to humanitarian challenges. This film outlines some of the key issues of humanitarianism that confront and challenge those who are committed to alleviating the suffering of populations affected by disaster. It is primarily intended for the new aid worker and can help begin their orientation to disaster response work. It may be useful to staff of international and national NGOs, UN agencies, national disaster response teams and Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies, and in training and academic settings.

The Sphere Office would like to share with Sphere users a process that is being used by CARE as an efficient tool for auditing/reviewing project compliance to the Sphere Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response.  

As the community of Sphere users is growing all over the world, with increased accumulated knowledge about its implementation in practice, the Sphere office is realising the need to further support the dissemination of this experience and knowledge about Sphere.