The Sphere Project Handbook was translated into Azerbaijani and published by Fovgal-Oxfam GB/Azerbaijan partner organisation in 2008 in Baku, Azerbaijan.

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. 

We are glad to announce that the Sphere Project 2004 handbook is now available in Korean. The translation was managed by Korea NGO Council (KCOC). You can download it from here.

The purpose of this presentation is two-fold:

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:

El Proyecto Esfera firmó un Memorando de Entendimiento con Books for Change en la India con miras a la publicación de una versión inglesa de bajo costo de la edición de 2004 del Manual Esfera. El Manual se ha publicado en la India y se puede adquirir por 210 rupias indias* en los siguientes países únicamente: India, Bangladesh, Pakistán, Afganistán, Bután, Nepal, Sri Lanka y Maldivas (territorios de ventas).