CWS-P/A is organizing a training on ‘Sphere Training of Trainers’. The training will be held from 16th – 20th June 2008 at O’ Spring Estate, Murree, Pakistan. National and International level NGOs, United Nations, Donor organizations and religious bodies are welcome to apply.

A three day Disaster Management training took place in Kuwait from the 1st to the 3rd of April 2008. The training had 16 participants from Kuwait and Qatar representing a wide spectrum of NGOs based in the Middle East and working overseas. The training was particularly focused on the International Humanitarian Standards in delivering relief aid and included an introduction to the Sphere Minimum Standards. The lead trainer was Moustafa Osman. 

In March of 2008, the Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS) presented their graduate students with an intensive two-day short course on the Sphere approach and its application in disaster assessment and response. The course included components from the InterWorks resource of training materials available from the Sphere website as well as a condensed overview and hands-on illustrations of the technical standards and indicators.

UN OCHA and UN IRIN organized a one-day training course on humanitarian reporting for UAE based reporters. The training was hosted by the Dubai Press Club and the International Humanitarian City. During the day 36 from 25 journalists were introduced to subjects such as the international humanitarian system, Sphere, technicalities of humanitarian journalisitic reporting, challenges faced by responders in the field. It is hoped that similar events will be organized in other countries to strengthen cooperation between humanitarian agencies and the media.

After the July war in 2006, Lebanon had many lessons to be learned and among those lessons was disaster preparedness and coping mechanisms. A thorough assessment identified needs on the community level and was validated further with community volunteers, and Lebanese Red Cross. It was realized that all stakeholders had no knowledge of the Sphere standards and limited or no knowledge on emergency preparedness and response. Therefore, it was decided that a Sphere training program designed to build capacities of the local community on emergency preparedness and response including Sphere Standards, risk assessments and disaster mitigation was needed to respond to any emergency in the country.